I can’t wait to be back together on Sunday. What a privilege to know God and to be God’s people! We have a number of different opportunities for growth this weekend.
We want to be a church that is good at building life transforming relationships. To help us grow in our ability to do that we are talking about discipleship in Equipping Hour. Specifically, we are going to look at how to give correction in a way that honors God and is helpful to others:
When should we correct? What should we correct about? And how should we correct?
If you are not able to join us in person, you can join the live-stream. We’ll start at 9 a.m. sharp and then end a little earlier than normal, at 9:45.
I am praying God will help us begin this year with a profound joy in the gospel and a sense of urgency about the message God has entrusted us to proclaim. Because of that we are going to have a special three week mini-series on the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It’s an old doctrine, but if we are going to grow, it always need to be fresh in our hearts!
James Buchanan, a 19th-century Scottish pastor, wrote:
The Gospel is older than Luther; but, to every succeeding generation, it is still new—good news from God—as fresh now as when it first sprung from the fountain of Inspiration. It was new to ourselves—surprising, startling, and affecting us strangely, as if it were almost too good to be true—when it first shone, like a beam of heaven’s own light, into our dark and troubled spirits, and shed abroad ‘a peace which passeth all understanding.’ It will be equally new to our children, and our children’s children, when they come to know that they have sins to be forgiven, and souls to be saved; and to the last sinner who is convinced and converted on the earth, it will still be as ‘good tidings from a far country’—as ‘cold water to a thirsty soul.’ It can never become old or obsolete, for this obvious reason, that while it is ‘the everlasting Gospel,’ and, as such, like its Author, unchangeable—’the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever’—yet it comes into contact, in every succeeding age, with new minds, who are ignorant of it, but need it, and can find no peace without it; and when they receive it as ‘a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to save sinners,’ they will learn from their own experience that the old truth is still the germ of ‘a new creation’—the spring of a new life, a new peace, a new hope, a new spiritual existence, to which they were utter strangers before.”
It’s my dream that we will view our corporate times together in prayer as absolutely vital to our work together as a church. Because they are. This Sunday evening we will be gathering together to give thanks for what God’s done, to enjoy what He is teaching us, and to honor God by asking for His help .
You can prepare by thinking about the following questions:
As you can tell, it’s going to be a full Sunday! Make sure to prepare yourself physically and spiritually so you are ready to pursue joy in Jesus through worship and to pour yourself out for the good of others.
Come ready! Come praying! Come expectant!
Joshua
Link to Equipping Hour Livestream
Order of Service
Welcome, Announcements and Call to Worship
Singing:
Scripture Reading: Romans 3:19-31
Pastoral Prayer
Preaching of God’s Word: Romans 3:19-31 – The Heart of the Gospel, Part 1
Singing: