Good morning. It's good to see everybody here
this morning, our announcements for the week.
There is no prayer lunch tomorrow here at the church.
There will be a prayer lunch a week from tomorrow, the 3rd of
August. And I don't know all the
details. I'm assuming there will be.
Chuck's going to cook, is that right Chuck?
OK, so now Tuesday night we do have prayer night here at the
church at 6:00. So we'll be glad to see about it
here. Be be good to see about it.
Is there any announcement need to be brought to our church at
this time, Dan? Yes, Sir.
We're glad to do it.
Yes, Sir. That's what we're here for.
We're here to help. We, we really are.
We appreciate it. We, we, we appreciate the
opportunity. Does any other announcement need
to be made to our church? We will continue with our
worship. Good morning.
If you will please take a hymnal turn, hymn #289 Days of Elijah.
We're going to sing all the way through and ask you to do.
Please stand with me as we sing. comes.
Amen. Be seated.
You did good. I know that one challenges y'all
every time I do it. Y'all are getting good though.
I'm going to be reading out of Psalm 95 this morning.
Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord.
Let us shout aloud to the rock of our salvation.
Let us come before him with Thanksgiving and extol him with
music, and so on. For the Lord is our great God,
the great King above all gods, and his hands are the depths of
the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.
The sea is his, and he made it, for his hands formed the dry
land. Come, let us bow down and
worship. Let us kneel before the Lord our
Maker, for he is our God and we are his people for his pasture,
the flock under his care today if only you would hear his
voice, would you please pray with me?
Our most gracious heavenly Father, we're thankful to be in
this your house. We ask that you clear our minds
of early things and open our hearts the message that we will
receive. We ask that you give us the
strength to care that message to those who come in contact with
we give you all the praise and the glory.
Talk to us by your Son, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day Our Daily
Bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors and
lead us not in temptation. But deliver us.
From evil, for thou is the Kingdom, the power, and the
glory forever. Amen.
If you would please take your hymnal once again, turn to hymn
#143. You are my All in all, and you
may remain seated as we sing. Amen.
As we pause to go the Lord in prayer this morning, I will say,
Mr. Dan, it's always good to have you with us.
Know that we are continuing to lift you and Miss Patricia up
and that anything we can do, you know that we we have that desire
to do for you. I want you also to please
continue to remember Vicki Rod's mom passed away and she is
heading out either today or tomorrow morning to Atlanta for
her funeral. So we pray for safety for her as
as she travels and just just with that family got a lot going
on. Anyone else prayer concerns Miss
Leather Mae, good to see you back.
Yes, remember. Phillip.
And Jackie. OK, Phillip and Jackie, yes.
How to put her on this? But.
Dickey's wide. OK.
Jan Caraway and right and having treatments, OK.
Yes, Sir. Wonderful, wonderful news.
Yes, over in Louisiana.
OK, All right. Anyone else?
Before we go, Lord, in prayer, my.
Ex brother-in-law. Yes, I'm I was supposed to
mention him yet Trista and Chris's dad, Jason Dean was in a
car accident and pretty serious car accident was thrown from the
vehicle and they did have to end up amputating a a leg and and
it's got some more surgeries upcoming, but is in university
and they were able to see him and in as good a spirits as he
can be in under the circumstances.
But do Please remember him. All right, I know y'all are
fanning out there. Air conditioner on this side is
out, so I'll try to be as concise as I can today, but
hopefully it won't get too much warmer than it is.
All right, let's pray. Our Heavenly Fathers, we pause
to give thanks for our time together this morning to worship
you, Lord, to acknowledge you once again as the one true and
living God. Lord, the Creator of the
universe, the the Sustainer of life, the Heavenly Father who
who gave his one and only Son as a sacrifice for our sins.
How thankful we are. And Lord, today we simply ask
that you are with us as we worship Lord, that we are able
to let the world around us fade away for just a little while,
and that we focus totally on our relationship with you.
Lord, we ask for mercy. Lord, we ask for, for your
healing hand upon those that we've mentioned who, who have
had accidents, who are facing treatments, Lord, and we, we
just pray that, that, that we can minister in those situations
as best that we can, Lord, But we know that we can pray and we
will certainly do that. We pray Lord, as we give of our
ties and offerings, as we have an opportunity to come to the
table to remember the sacrifice that was made for us.
And Lord then as we look into your word that your Holy Spirit
is with us and Lord, that we allow your Spirit to move within
us and to change us, Lord, to encourage us, Lord, and maybe
sometimes to convict us of those things that we need to get rid
of or change in our lives. We do want to give you all the
glory and all the honor Lord. And then to send your sons Jesus
name I pray, Amen. Bullshit.
May these ties be used for your glory and honor.
It's in your holy name we pray. Amen.
Our communion hymn this morning is hymn #476 in the Garden.
We're going to sing the 1st and 2nd stanzas.
This morning as we come to the table and we have the invitation
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ himself.
When I asked you about that last hymn that we sing, how often
this week has we, have we stopped?
Have we taken the time to try to commune with our Heavenly
Father? Have we stopped and taking the
time to acknowledge that even in the midst of all the chaos
that's going on in our life, He is there with us.
He desires for us to come and commune with him.
So today as we come to the table, I pray that we can we can
truly come here and commune with our Savior.
We can truly commune with our our, our Father and that we once
again take in the magnitude of what he did on the cross for
each of us and the willingness that he had when he went.
He wouldn't go kicking and screaming.
He went willingly and lovingly and how thankful we we are for
that. Let's pray.
Lord, praise to the Heavenly Father.
We're thankful this part of our service.
We do understand this only by your invitation that we're
allowed to be Lord. And may we take this bread
humbly, confessing our sins and understanding that represents
the broken body of Christ as He gave His life and gives us all
sins. It's in Christ's name, we pray.
Jesus, we do come around this table remembering you and what
you did for us. We come acknowledging that we
are not worthy of what you did, but you did it because you loved
us that much. We come celebrating the fact
that we have a Holy Spirit that can guide us and correct us and
bring us to You. We thank you for the opportunity
to come here, share the elements that we do today, bless us as we
protect, renew us in our understanding of why you love us
and how much you love us that we can come and share your love
today. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. The Lord Jesus, on the night he
was betrayed, took bread and we had to give him thanks.
He broke it and said, this is my body given for you.
Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after supper he
took the cup, saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim
the Lord's death until he comes. All right, this morning as we
look into God's Word, we're going to start in Hebrews
Chapter 11 and verse 1, and I want to tell you how how we got
here. So last week we were in Hebrews
chapter 10 and I asked you the question, is God's love
unconditional? And we had some good, some good
discussion about that. And while we were having these
discussions, after I'd finished the service and we were talking,
I had someone asked me, they, they said to me, well, I know
that you said that in the New Testament we come to faith
through Christ. But what about in the Old
Testament when Jesus was not there?
How did they come to know God and, and to have a relationship
with him? So this is Hebrews Chapter 11
and verse one. And this is what it says.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about
what we do not see. This is what the ancients were
commended for. By faith we understand that the
universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen
was not made out of what was visible.
By faith, Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did.
By faith he was commended as righteous when God spoke well of
his offerings, and by faith Abel still speaks even though he is
dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from
this life so that he did not experience death.
He cannot be found because God had taken him away for before
before before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased
God, verse 6 says. And without faith it is
impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must
believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly
seek him. Now we can keep going on and on
through this chapter. It is it is the the, the chapter
of faith, the the chapter of the heroes of faith of as he as he
lists them from Noah to Abraham and on and on he goes about how
those who had not seen God personally, but they experienced
God and through faith did exactly what God had called them
to do. So in the Old Testament, it was
simply by faith, just like it is for us in the New Testament.
We cannot come to a relationship with Christ without faith.
We go to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 8.
It says this for it is by grace. Excuse me, for it is by grace
you have been saved through faith, and this is not from
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by
work, so that no one can boast. For we are God's handiwork,
created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in
advance for us to do this morning.
As you're thinking about the concept of faith, as you're
thinking about our part of the process of receiving salvation,
we, we have such a small insignificant part, yet it's so
very important. We go back and we talk about
God's love and, and how God loved us and gave his one and
only son for us and that we know what love is because God is
love. He gave us the example of what
love looks like and the only way that we could be able to express
love at all is because God gave us what love is when we're
talking about our faith. It's it in verse a says for it
is by grace you have been saved. Grace, unmerited favor
Definition of grace unmerited favor We all have God's grace
available to us. We all have that unmerited favor
that we did not deserve salvation.
We deserve death, we deserve punishment, we deserve
destruction for our sin and how it had separated us from God.
But through His Son, Jesus Christ, He gave us a way to be
saved. And by grace, that unmerited
favor that He placed upon each of us, that we can respond to
that grace, and we do that through faith.
That's all we have to do. God did all the rest.
God provided the sacrifice. God is love.
God created this world. He knew that we were going to
sin. He provided a way to escape the
consequences of that sin. That must be because we talked
about God is a holy God. He is not only a loving God, He
is a holy God. He will not, cannot be in the
presence of sin. And we have righteousness
through his Son Jesus Christ. So for it is by grace that we
are saved through faith. And it reminds us this is not of
yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by
work, so that no one can boast. How often do we think about our
lives and we think about maybe the past week that we've lived
and we think about, you know, I had a pretty good week last
week. I did so and so and this, this,
this, this, I did these things for the Lord.
It was, I had a good week. It is hard for us not to measure
our lives by the things that we do.
I heard a saying and I don't know who who it was and I should
remember these things better because I need to give credit
where credit is due. I can tell you it was not I who
came up with this, but this was the statement that was made.
Every St. has a past and every center has a future.
Every St. has a past and every Sinner has a future.
The love of God is such that we look at people down the road who
have accepted Christ as Savior and have grown in their
relationship with Him, and we see that in their lives.
And we think how great that person is, how loving they are,
how kind they are, how are they willing to, to sacrifice for
others. And we end up saying, well, you
know, she, he, she's just a St. or he's just a St.
Let us never forget that all of those Saints, those that we hold
in the highest of esteem for how they have lived their life after
accepting Christ as Savior, they have a past.
They fell short. They were a Sinner themselves
and they needed a savior. And that Savior is our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. But I also want us to think
about those sinners, those that we look at and we think there is
no hope. They continue to do the wrong
things time after time after time.
It doesn't matter how many times we help, how many times we try
to help, how many times we encourage, we lose hope, we give
up. But while they have breath here
on this earth, they can still have a future.
They can still have the opportunity to receive Christ as
Savior, just as you and I have. And hopefully we are in the
process of being sanctified, of becoming who God desires for us
to be. We haven't just accepted that
gift of salvation and we just leave it there.
No, we want to become more like Christ because that's what it is
to have Christ living within us. God desires for us to become
more and more like Christ. And less and less like bread.
So every St. has a past. Every Sinner has a future.
All of that is only because of the grace of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, how He expressed it to us and going to the cross.
That we can't work for it. That we can't earn it.
That we don't deserve it, but he loved us anyway and he went and
he finishes up with this for we are God's handiwork created in
Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance
for us to do. When you see the lives of those
who have grown in their relationship with the Lord and
you and you see in them, boy, that's, that's a, that's an
attribute or that's something that I would really like to, to
attain that I, I would like to, to move towards in my
relationship with the Lord, that I would be more patient, that I
would be more kind, that I would be more loving.
We go back and all those things are, are, are fruit of the
spirit, Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
When we live by the Spirit, when we allow God to live through us,
we see less and less of that old self, that old sinful nature,
and we see more and more of the Spirit of God living within us
and through us. So I go back to that hymn that
we sang in the garden, a favorite for for many.
I've told you all that was one of my grandmother's absolute
favorites. I don't like it.
It's it's always slow. It always seems to just go and
go and go. But when I can get past all of
the reasons I don't like it and I just listen to those words and
I bring those concepts of walking and communing with God.
And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me
that I am his own. And the joy we share as we tarry
there, none other has ever known.
That's powerful words. It's a powerful concept.
I wish they'd just done a better job with the tune.
But that concept of knowing that God desires to walk with you and
with me, to commune with us on a daily basis, He gave His one and
only Son. He gave us grace.
He gave us mercy. He withheld what we should have
gotten. He withheld those things because
of a relationship that we have with Christ, and he loved us
enough to send his Son. And then we just come in and we
have faith in the Creator God. We have faith that Jesus did
come to this earth, that He did die on the cross, that He did
rise again from the dead, that He did ascend back to heaven and
is waiting at the right hand of God right now for Him, for the
Father to call us home. In Hebrews 11 and it finishes
up, I'm going to go to verse 39. These were all commended for
their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised
since God had planned something better for us so that only
together with us would they be made perfect and listen to this
it says starting in chapter 12. Therefore, since we are
surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses talking about all
those that he has just listed in those in that in that chapter
before the heroes of faith and the, and the, the faithfulness
that they had to God in all of those terrible circumstances and
unknown circumstances, they continued to be faithful.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud
of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders in the
sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance
the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the
pioneer and perfector of our faith for the joy set before
him. He endured the cross scorning at
shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners so that
you will not grow weary and lose heart.
I hope today that your faith continues to grow, that you are
looking more and more forward to the time when you leave this
earth and you were called home and that you experienced all
that God has promised to those in the Heroes of Faith chapter,
but He has also promised to us they will not experience
anything that we will not experience as great as they are
all of the great things that they did.
Our relationship with Jesus Christ places us in that very
same category with them. Maybe one day someone when you
leave this earth, they they will look and they say that was one
of my heroes. I looked up to them that the way
that they live their life here on this earth.
Maybe you will be a hero of faith to someone, but when we
get to heaven, we're all going to be together.
We are all going to experience all that God has planned for us.
And it will not disappoint the faith that we have here on this
earth that as I said, I hope that it is continuing to grow,
that you don't doubt what God is doing, that he is still in
control, that He is still working in this world.
Don't think that he has given up, that he has lost heart, that
he has thrown up his hands. We are told over and over how
patient God is and that it is His desire that all men should
be saved. That's God's heart that goes
back to that love that He has for us.
But we have one thing that we have to do.
We have to put our faith in Him and in nothing else.
No one else, not our accomplishments, not our works,
not our family, not our job, not what we have attained here on
this earth financially. We don't get to take a single
bit of that with us, but the things that we do in the name of
Jesus, those things will be stored up for us in heaven.
They will not be corrupted. They will not be tarnished.
They are waiting for us. All we have to do is live by
faith. Let's pray, Heavenly Father,
this morning. I pray that we once again
acknowledge the absolute need that we have for a relationship
with you and Lord, that we give thanks that you provided the
sacrifice through Jesus that we can have that relationship.
What sin had separated us from Christ, came and redeemed us and
brought us back into your presence, even to the point of
that we can step into the very throne room of God and we can do
it boldly and with confidence because our righteousness comes
not from what we have done, but our righteousness comes from the
perfect Son of God. Lord, we simply ask today that
you give us the strength to live by faith, that you encourage us,
that you walk with us, that you commune with us, and that you
grow us into who you desire for us to be.
And that we share the love of Christ with others in a mighty
way, not only through our words, but through our actions.
And they see Christ in US. It's in Jesus name I pray, Amen.
Hymn of invitation this morning is hymn #433.
I surrender all. We don't surrender part, We
don't surrender some, but we are going to surrender all.
Let's stand and sing the 1st 2 verses.
Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you
for your son Jesus Christ. Lord, we thank you that you
loved us enough to send him, that he came willingly.
And Lord, we simply pray and ask today that we will humble
ourselves before the Almighty God, before our Savior Jesus
Christ, and that we allow the Spirit to move within us and
that we can and are willing to surrender everything to the one
who gave us all. Since Jesus name I pray, Amen.