A "Truly" Awful Sermon by Kevin Cox (UPCI LA District Supt.)

Kevin Cox, preaching at Hope Central church 10/08/17

( watch here. )

Verses used: Luke 19:10, John 4:19-24, 1 Kings 8:10-11

Main point of text: God seeks our true worship.

 The main verses of this text are Luke 19:10, and John 4:19-24, which are read in their entirety to begin the sermon. All lettering in black is quoted directly from the sermon. My own comments, as well as direct bible quotations, will be in pink. 

  “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

LUKE 19:10 (KJV)

“The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

But 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 4:19-24 (KJV)

Just out of curiosity, how many have you ever lived on a farm and been around milk cows?

About five or six of you out there. The rest of you don’t have a clue what I’m going to talk about. But if you live on a farm with milk cattle, they may all be out in the pasture, but early that morning and at that same time that afternoon, they’re going to come back to the barn to be milked. And no matter where they are, they will eventually wind up on the same path going back to the barn. If you have three or four cows to be milked, you will have three or four stalls that they’re going to go to. I noticed when you came in this morning, this church is still so new, not everybody knows which stall to go to yet. And you’re still trying to figure out do I do this, do I do that, but I want to assure you that Jesus Christ is here today. From the moment these wonderful singers and musicians began to sing, and worship, and play, the presence of God has been in this house. I read to you about a lady in the book of John that didn’t know much about Jesus Christ. Only thing that she recognized when he came to her at that well, was that he was a Jew, and she was not. And when he said to her, “give me to drink of that water,” she looked at him and said, “how is it that you’re a Jew, asking me a Samaritan water to drink?” That’s when he began to reveal himself to her, and he said if you just knew the gift of God and who it is that’s speaking to you, God is able to give you, give me to drink, if you knew who that was, you’d never have to ask again for living water. She didn’t quite understand at first, because when he’s telling her you will not have to drink again, she knew her normal custom was to have to come to that well every day to get water. So her thinking is, “sir, if you can tell me how not to have come to this well every day, I’m for it. Tell me how to do it.” Jesus knew what he was doing when he answered her question by saying to her, "go get your husband." At first glance it doesn’t seem like that’s the correct answer to her question. And so she just said, "I have no husband." And Jesus answered and said, “I know you tell the truth, that you’ve have had 5 husbands and the one you live with now is not your husband.” It was that point that the woman said, “now I know you are a prophet. No way a stranger could know this without being a prophet of God.” And then Jesus began to explain to her that God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship in in spirit and in truth. And regardless of how much she didn’t understand previously, she recognized then who she really was talking to. She found out what worship really was, and she recognized the one true and living God that was standing before her. What I would like to say to you this morning, is that the first person he revealed himself in that manner to was a lady who by our worlds standards was much of a sinner. But if you’re here this morning and you’ve never repented or been baptized in Jesus name or filled with the Holy Ghost, you’re still in the right place. It doesn’t matter to my God what you did last night or last week or last year. It doesn’t matter to him if you’re a drug addict or alcoholic. It doesn’t matter to him what sin might be in your life. What matters to him is that you make your way to an alter and repent of those sins. What matters to him is when you acknowledge that he is lord and savior and right. The world may have shoved you down, and put you in a place where you don’t feel like you’re worth anything. But in God’s house, you’re worth something. In God’s house there is no male or female,* in God’s house there’s neither rich nor poor, for God sees your soul and love your soul. He doesn’t care if you have a great heritage, or a horrible heritage. God loves you. What God wants from you this morning is true worship, he wants it more than anything else.

This is a very good point being made here. I especially like the simile made between the average church-goer and a herd of milk cows. People are indeed prone to going to the same pew every service, to be probed and manipulated by the preacher. Subtle, and clever. (I hope this was the point being made here. Otherwise, I don’t understand the simile.)

The point that Jesus Christ is not concerned with your mistakes, and is only interested in the quality of your worship, is one I agree with whole-heartedly. It is perhaps ironic then that the leadership in the Apostolic church is very much concerned with your mistakes. They certainly do care what you did last year, last week and especially last night. If you are someone who sings or plays an instrument to worship God on the platform, you can excpect to have your lifestyle scrutinized closely. If you do, or say, or wear something deemed innapropirate, you will have to do your worshipping in the pews with the rest of the congregation. In my experience, the platform has been reseverd for those who sin on a less regular basis, ‘true worship’ notwithstanding.

  

  *This statement goes so glaringly against the views of the Apostolic church, that I’m convinced it must have been an error.

Maybe I should try a different denomination.

     

The first scripture read to you was found in Luke 19:10. (read). “…that which was lost.”

We know very quickly that Jesus Christ was the son of man. We also recognize that Jesus Christ was God in flesh. How is it that you can have a God who is all knowing and all powerful lose something? I’ve heard this scripture quoted somewhat incorrectly many times. Because people will many times leave out the word “that.” They simply want to say that he came to save the lost. But the scripture says he came to save seek and to save that which was lost. How can God lose something?

(Long anecdote about late wife who lost things a lot. It does not advance or effect sermon in any way.)

 But how does God lose something? In the first book of the Bible it talks about Adam and Eve. The bible says they would talk with God every day in that garden. But because they committed sin, God expelled them from the Garden of Eden. I know enough about people, that I believe they would sit down with their children and say, “let me tell you how special it was when we walked with God in the garden.” And the children would look back at them and say, “tell me more about that, mom and dad.” And one day, Cain and Abel decided they would go find a place and offer a sacrifice to God. Those first two sons of Adam said decided that they were going to go offer. Abel said, “I’m going offer what I have,” and he was a shepherd, and he had cattle. And Cain said he would bring what he had, and he was a farmer and brought fruit of the ground. When they finished their offerings to God, something happened to that second born child Abel, that God got all over him some way or another, because Abel really was worshiping God. My opinion is, Cain was doing it because it was probably Abel’s idea. And when Cain saw the blessing of God come on Abel and he didn’t get that blessing, it made him very angry. And he killed his brother Abel. When God came and began to talk with Cain, we can understand what the problem was. God's got a way of asking questions that don’t make sense to us at first. God said to Cain, where is your brother? His answer was, “am I my brother’s keeper?” I feel that explains right there what was wrong with the sacrifice. Because if you don’t love your brother and sister, you’re going to have a hard time worshipping in spirit and truth. That’s why when I read to you from Luke about the woman at the well who met Jesus, you see they were not even supposed to even be talking to each other. Because the rules of society in that day said, you are this race and I am that race and we’re not going to be together. But when Jesus talked to her about who he really was, there was no division in those races. It was simply “I am a God, and we worship God because we love one another.” I declare to you this morning there is nothing that God wants more than to have your true worship.

Hmm. This passage is a bit hard to follow. In the beginning, he seems to be furthering his point about God desiring to be truly close to, and worshipped by us, by using the visual of Adam and Eve reminiscing to their children about what was like to be close to God. But then he goes on to decimate the tale of the murder of Abel, taking a very slanted and unlikely view. Here is what actually happened in that story:

"And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD.

And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:

But unto Cain and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell.

And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?

If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Genesis 4:3-7 (KJV)"

…and then Cain kills his brother Abel. I don’t understand how you see the main point of this story being, ‘Cain’s lack of brotherly love disqualifies his sacrifice.’ The problem here with Cain’s sacrifice is clearly that he offered God the fruit of the ground, when God as he always has, required a blood sacrifice. It was likely the only animals had to offer God, would be the ones who helped him till his field. Abel, on the other hand, had an abundance of animals to sacrifice, being a shepherd. (In my opinion, Cain’s annoyance was justified, but of course no excuse for murder.)

It's that easy!

                

Why you decided to suddenly pivot and compare this story to the story of the woman at the well, and then proceed to use them both as a message for racial unity, I have no idea. It’s pointless and contrived, to say the least.

There’s a very unique story in the old testament Exodus the 32nd chapter. It’s a story of Moses going up to a mountain. He’s speaking to God as if it were, face to face. It’s where we get the 10 commands from, if you will. because God took those tablets of stone that Moses held and wrote the commandments. So while Moses and God are on that mountain having a fabulous time of communication, all of those children of Israel, that God had just before that led from Egypt and across the red sea, and now they’re in the wilderness, they’re down there. Moses' bother Aaron was their leader while Moses was on the mountain. And they decided to pull the earrings out of the ears of the sons and daughters, and take and make a golden calf. I’d like to take time here to say it was a good idea to get the earrings out of all them, because if you’'ll study the ancient history, you’ll find those earrings meant they were slaves to Egypt. The mistake they made, was making a golden calf and began to worship it. And God got mad. God gets mad? Yes, God gets mad. He said to Moses, “I’m just going to kill a whole bunch of them.” You know why God was mad? Because some of those people were down there worshiping that golden calf, and saying this is the god that brought us out of Egypt. Now pastor you can preach about this later, but they were also pulling their clothes off, and dancing to sexual dances they had learned in Egypt out in front of that Golden calf, and calling it worship to God. It’s very interesting that the further people get from God, the more they want to pull their clothes off. I’ll let pastor finish that later. And God says, “Moses, I’ll just kill them all and start over with you.” And Moses begins to plead with God, saying “You can’t kill them, if you do what, will the Egyptians say? They going to say you just pulled them out of here to let them die in the wilderness.” But the argument that made more sense to God, if I can put it that way, is when Moses said, “remember Abraham.” What do you mean, "remember Abraham?" God didn’t have to ask what he meant. He knew what Moses meant. What Moses was trying to say was, “remember you made a vow to Abraham because Abraham worshiped you. Because Abraham came out of a heathen land and didn’t know who you were, but when he met you God, he worshiped you.” He said, “remember God, when you told Abraham, to take his only son Isaac to the mountain, to offer him as a sacrifice?” We know that goes against everything the Bible teaches.

 (Calls Pastor Martin and his daughter, to the platform.)

I know this is your baby. If God said to you today, take her up on a mountain, kill and her shed her blood, offer her as a sacrifice I know what you’re going to say. You’re going to say, “that wasn’t God.” (Strike-through because this is truly horrible and pointless imagery here.) God knows everything that says God’s against it. So why would God tell Abraham go offer not a daughter, but a son? I can’t prove what I’m going say next, but I’ll give you contrapinion [opinion?]. All the heathen, were offering up their children to the idols. God was saying to Abraham, “I’m going to prove to you that you love me as much as those heathen do, and that you’re willing to offer your child as a sacrifice.” And Abraham was planning on offering that child as a sacrifice, he had the knife and wood, and everything it took he built the alter, he put his son on the alter, he had the knife in the air ready to kill that son. You say, "why would he do that?" I’m going to give you two answers. One, he had worshiped God so much that he trusted him. But the New Testament lets us know what he was counting on it, that God was going pick that boy up from there, and they were going back down that mountain alive together. You see, when you’re a true worshiper you’ve got some power with God that all the world doesn’t understand. When you’re a true worshiper, miracles are going to follow your worship, they have to. That’s why with that knife in the air God said stop, “Stop, now I know.” Wait a minute brother Cotton, you told us God was all knowing. How is it that God, is saying “now I know?” What God was saying is, you’re standing here in front of me, it’s present tense. “I know Abraham will worship me regardless of the circumstance.” God loves worship.

This is where the sermon takes a sudden hard turn for the graphic and ridiculous. First of all, I’d like to mention that this was not a totally adult audience. The Sunday School age children were also in the audience throughout. Not only did he call a young adult to the stage, (getting everybody’s attention, especially the kids,) but he then proceeded to ask her father to imagine the worst situation he could possibly ever face as regards his child. And the worst part is, it has no bearing on his point whatsoever. Even he seems to realize this, (I hope, probably giving him too much credit here,) because he spent the next half of this segment back paddling over his own words.

In fact, he could have saved everyone some time and left out the Golden Calf/Moses on the mountain aspect of this story altogether. Why not just tell the story of Abraham as being an example of true worship? Even the Bible tactfully refers to the goings on around the Golden Calf as “revelry.” But I suppose those children really needed to hear about the evils of taking off your clothes and dancing before your god. Somebody should have preached this sermon to King David, as he had this very habit. Ironically, God also required the life of his son as a sacrifice for his sins. This time no backsies.

(Also, when exactly did the Hebrew slaves find time to learn "sexual  Egyptian dances? You think they were taking lessons in between their shifts of making bricks without straw? You try taking a belly dancing class. That shit is complicated.)

"And it came to pass, when the priests were come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the LORD,
So that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD."
  1 Kings 8:10-11 (KJV)

This scripture has to do with when they dedicated that great house of God, that temple that Solomon was in charge of building. Pastor, we’re dedicating this house, this whole weekend has been a time of dedicating this house to God. And when they dedicated that one, it says they couldn’t even number the amount of sacrifices made. And the glory of God came in that house. Later on, they numbered sacrifices in the twenties of thousands, but this was more than they could number. And while I’m impressed by how magnificent that temple was, and by all the sacrifices offered, the thing that impresses me the most, is the Bible says the priests could not even minister because the glory of God was in the house. What I want to have happen at Hope Central, is for the glory of God to come in to this house, so even the pastor can’t preach right then, because the glory of God is even stronger than that. You say, “how’s that going to happen?” It won’t happen because your pastor preaches a better sermon. It happens when sinners walk into this house and they find a Christ in them, that makes a change like no other change, and they worship. Hope Central, don’t ever stop reaching for sinners. because when you stop reaching, worship ceases. That’s why when I read to you what the scripture says, “the son of man comes to seek and to save the thing which was lost." Now, you say brother, ‘thing’ wasn’t the word he used. I know it’s not. But as much as I trust brother Ozuna to translate what I’m saying to you into Spanish, I trust the people that have written the books that studied the ancient Greek. And they say if you translate it out best, it says the thing that had been lost. And if you study history, you find that worship basically was lost. There were still some that were trying, but they were minimal in amount. But when Jesus came on the scene, he said, "I’m looking, I’m searching," in other words you don’t just stop at the bed or the sink, you’ll look in the waste can. Because if something is lost, we’re not going to stop till we find it. If something is lost, I’m going get out of my comfort zone if need be to find it. That’s why Jesus said, “I’m looking for worshipers.”

(Anecdote about children playing baptism with leaves. It does not advance or effect the sermon in any way.)

I sympathize with your vision here of the presence of God filling a building so profoundly, even the preacher is too overwhelmed to speak. Such moments are truly rare and wonderful, I agree. However, I disagree with your statement that it “won’t happen because your preacher preaches a better sermon.” Surely a preacher’s goal is to preach the best sermon he’s ever preached, every time he gets up at the pulpit. This has certainly been the desire of every young preacher I’ve ever met. Isn’t it fitting that you should attempt to convey a message from God in the clearest, most eloquent way you can? Isn’t this, even more than the worship music, what would move a “sinner,” to pray at an altar?

All in all, I find this sermon very disappointing. It’s not only was I expecting much more from such a high-ranking person in any Apostolic organization. It’s also because I feel that the core of this sermon is valid. Jesus seeks sincerity from those who love him, just as we all do. The execution, however, is poorly thought out and badly written. The result, quite frankly, is a convoluted mess.