Weekly Email 2.10.15

Dear LPBC,

I pray your week is going well, and by God’s grace your love of Christ is growing more. No matter how our week goes according to our plan, we can always trust our good God. He has not withheld His own Son, but freely given Him to us for our salvation.

Recap-

We gathered together on Sunday to glorify Him and we once again found Him to be full grace and truth.

During our Sunday School hour two courses were taught.

I taught a session on our church covenant in our Membership Matters course. We talked about how the church covenant is central to our identity as a church and how it helps clarify our relationship to one another. Please come out and learn more about our church this week as we study biblical basis for church membership. We begin at 9:30 A.M.

Andrew Nedimyer taught the other class called Meeting with God. This upcoming week, Lord willing, Nate Mouli will lead us in our next section of this class. I pray you will all be encouraged to grow in your personal devotions as result of this seminar. The class is at 9:30 A.M. Pray for Nate as he prepares and encourage him by attending as he leads us in this edifying study.

In the service, we looked at John 6 v60-71. We considered the distinction between true and false disciples. True disciples understand that in this fallen world, there is no better place to turn than to Christ. He alone has the words of eternal life.

Lord willing, this Sunday we will be in John 7. Read and pray in advance. Pray for the preaching of the Word.

In the evening, we gathered again for prayer and song. By grace, we prayed over many people. We asked God to work and use us to see people come to Christ. Sean Slick led us in a thoughtful application from Proverbs 5. Praise God for Sunday Nights! Praise God that we get to come together for prayer and encouragement!

Upcoming-

· Wednesday Night Study- Titus 1 v9 @ 7PM

· Sunday, Feb 15^th – Men in Prayer and Repentance @5PM

Prayer-

Pray that we would be great ambassadors for the King.

Pray for our love for one another.

Pray for all our services.

Pray for our expectant mothers.

Pray for God's guidance for me as a pastor.

Pray that our love Jesus would be greater than our love of sin.

Comments

Repackaging the gospel? It's more like obscuring the gospel!

Preface : I recognize this post may make me unpopular with some, but I think it is an important issue to blog about here. I’ve had time to reflect on this video and in my opinion, I think what is in this video raises some questions. This gentleman featured below is slotted to speak at the SBC's 2020 Pastors' Conference and it prompted me to think more about this illustration. I want to note that I don't know him and I have no personal issue with him. I assume he is a brother in the LORD. Having said that, I see some significant issues here that relate to this type of preaching being clear on the gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact, it appears to be obscuring it in my observation. Concern: Should the SBC or churches, in general, be in the habit of holding this up as a good and healthy example? Let's think about it some together. (Watch this clip below here first.) Context: The clip was posted to stand on its own as if it were wise and sound on it

Smith: "Many people believe God opens the door of salvation and then stands back...".

Jonah 2:9 “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” God’s dramatic intervention in the life of Jonah is full of hope—not only for those who seek God, but also for those who, like Jonah, have determined to shut him out. Many people believe God opens the door of salvation and then stands back, leaving it up to us to decide if we want to come in. But if God made salvation possible and then stepped back, refusing to interfere with our choice, then the entire life of believers would be about us—our believing, our serving, our following, and our choices to live a good life. In the case of Jonah, imprisoned in the whale’s belly, God was claiming someone who was quite incapable of performing any redeeming work to compensate for his sin. God was not relying on Jonah to save Jonah. The message remains the same for each of us today: if you have trusted God for salvation, he has done more than simply make salvation possible; he has actually saved you. Colin Smith, “Jonah,” in Gospel Transformation B

Men stirred, boys exhorted, and Jesus exalted!

Neh 8 v 13 (CSB) 13 On the second day, the family heads of all the people, along with the priests and Levites, assembled before the scribe Ezra to study the words of the law. Notice the feel of the scene. After that long day in the Word, it appears that the women and children were, understandably, exhausted and urged to stay home on this occasion. And, among the men, there is a growing interest of “What else are we missing right now as it pertains to obeying God's Word?”. So clear is the fact that the family heads, the men, came back to get more. The real sense of enthusiasm starts with the men here. If you were an able-bodied man here, you stayed behind to get instructions so that you might be a good instructor at home. The text says these men came together to study the words of the law . That means to give attention to and ponder. This is the process of thinking through complex things, resulting in wise dealing and the use of good practical common sense. Here in

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