December 27, 2009
Sundays 7:00 am Channel 27 WKYT
It is requested that all children under the age of five stay in our nursery
so there will be no distractions during the preaching of the Gospel.

HYMN OF THE DAY
My God, the covenant of Thy love
Abides forever sure
And in its matchless grace I feel
My happiness secure.

What though my house be not with Thee
As nature could desire
To nobler joys than nature gives
Thy servants all aspire.

Since Thou, the everlasting God
My Father art become
Jesus, my Guardian, and my Friend
And heaven my final home.

I welcome all Thy sovereign will
For all that will is love
And when I know not what thou dost
I’ll wait the light above.

(Tune: “Amazing Grace” p. 236)

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Thank you all so much for the Christmas gift. I sincerely thank you for your continual generosity to me and your love, support, and friendship and the bond of fellowship we have in our Savior. What a wonderful Savior He is and what a blessing to be your pastor. I’m thankful for each of you. May the Lord bless us and keep us in the New Year and cause His Gospel to go forth boldly.

We will change our Wednesday service to Thursday evening (New Years Eve) this week. We’ll eat pizza together afterwards.

Birthdays
29th – Amanda Frye 29th – Alan Kincer
30th – Will Hands 31st – Donna Wooten
“It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.” - Proverbs 25:27

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The Gospel of Christ makes lofty claims. It claims to be the Gospel of God, infallible, and the only way to God. It denounces all other religions as false and all other beliefs as spurious. It commands men to believe its content, and says those who do not will be eternally damned. It pronounces revelation that could not have possibly been known unless God was pleased to reveal it. How can we know it is true? There is only one way. God must personally bear witness to our hearts (I John 5:6-7). If God bears witness by His Spirit to our hearts, we will believe that Jesus Christ is God, and salvation is utterly and completely in Him. We will believe anything contrary to that is utterly false. If we do not believe that, God has evidently not born witness to us. If the only witness we have is that of man, we will not and cannot believe. When He bears witness, we do!

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STRIVING LAWFULLY
“And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.” - II Timothy 2:5
If a man crossed the finish line, but has not obeyed the rules of the race, or did not stay on the proper course, he is disqualified. No short-cuts allowed.
Few preachers pay attention to this warning. In their thirst for success in the ministry, which they cover up by calling it “seeking to win the lost,” they take short-cuts. They do not obey the rules of the Gospel. They cut corners on Gospel Truth in order to make their message more likely to be received. They by-pass certain parts of the race to speed up the process. But they will find in the end that no one was truly saved through their ministry. Even more horrifying will it be when they find that they themselves were not saved.

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He who is not liberal with what he has does but deceive himself when he thinks he would be liberal if he had more. - William Plummer
WHY DOES GOD EXPOSE THE SINS OF HIS PEOPLE?
The Word of God is filled with story after story of the sins of His chosen people. The Lord does not cover, but rather exposes some of the worst sins of the best of men; men like Abraham, Lot, Isaac, Jacob, Samson, David, Solomon, and others. Why? Why did the Lord write down their sins for all to read for all time?
The Lord certainly did not expose the sins of His people in order for us to say: “Aha, aha…they’re getting what they deserve.” That is what the enemy says. He certainly did not expose them for us to censure them, or look down upon them, or even think less of them. Let me give several biblical reasons why the Lord made public some of the terrible sins of His people.
1. To show His great mercy. - Forgiving all manner of sin and iniquity. The Lord is of such great mercy that He forgives the greatest of sins. The cross of Christ is ultimate proof.
2. To show that the best of men are men at best. – Vanity of vanities, all flesh is vanity. That was penned by Solomon, the wisest man to live, yet he himself (even in his old age), committed terrible sins against the Lord. We should not think more highly of men that we ought, but should at least esteem them better than ourselves.
3. To show us what we are capable of. – If great men such as Abraham, David, Solomon and Peter, did what they did, where does that leave me? Same place it left them …in the hands of God. Even the best of men are liable to do the worst, but for the restraining grace and power of God. When the Lord left Simon Peter to himself, in just a few hours he went from a bold and courageous defender of the Lord, to a cursing coward. What about us?
4. To teach us to take heed lest we fall. – The things that were written afore were written for our learning…We should carefully and prayerfully read and heed the lesson to be learned from the sins of others; the terrible consequences their sins brought upon them and us, if we repeat their sins.
5. To show us how God brings about great good, even out of great evil. – The greatest sin of all is a sin committed by all; “You with wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory.” Our greatest sin revealed God’s greatest goodness…His mercy, love and grace to such vile and evil creatures.
Thank God for His Word which, though it exposes men’s sins, yet it reveals His great goodness, grace and glory.
- Pastor Paul Mahan