Love From Your Pastor

Hi Friends!

Now to Him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages but has now been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith — to the only wise God be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ!  Amen.  (Romans 16:25-27, ESV)
Paul ended his great letter to the Romans with the statement above, but I wanted to start my message to you with it!  May our only wise God be exalted as He strengthens us in our faith!
Remember parents, tomorrow morning is the Awana Grand Prix at 9am!  Hope you all have your cars ready to go.  This is a great opportunity to enjoy some fun and excitement with the kids, and also a good chance for us to interact with guests who will be here who don’t normally attend a church.  Let’s pray that some seeds will be planted in hearts tomorrow.

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Love From Your Pastor

Hi FBC Friends!

Who has first given to Me, that I should repay him?  Whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine. (Job 41:11)
Our reading in Job this morning was God speaking to Job, and to Job’s “friends.”  This statement in 41:11 stuck out to me, because it is one of the points I want to make in the sermon Sunday.  I will be sharing the 2nd part of the message on Stewardship.  Last week we talked about using our time well, this week we will discuss how we use our money.  I did not include Job 41:11 in the message, but it closely relates to a verse I did include – Psalm 24:1, The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein.  Please be thinking about those two verses as you prepare your heart for Sunday morning.
A few important items to be aware of:

Tonight – AWANA is back in action!  Unfortunately Cubbies will NOT be starting tonight, as we need to finish preparing their room with furnishings and supplies.  But (Lord willing of course) we should be able to move ahead with Cubbies next Thursday.  For parents in the “Pointers 4 Parents” class, please come prepared to discuss chapter 2 in our book, and your list of what makes your child/children special!
Saturday – Men’s Breakfast at 7am!  Dennis Blevins from Navigators (our Roundup speaker) will be sharing with us.  Invite a friend and come join us!


Love From Your Pastor

Hi FBC Friends!

I love what Job said in our reading for today:  I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my portion of food. (Job 23:12)  What a great statement!  Can you say that today (and mean it)?  What is a higher priority for you – your next meal, or the Bread of Life?
I want to encourage you to invite your friends and their families to tonight’s big event at FBC.  Our 3rd annual “Trunk-or-Treat” promises to be the best ever, and what an opportunity it provides for us to engage our friends and neighbors for the sake of the gospel!
Please be on the lookout for opportunities tonight to reach out to all who attend, and have a great time with your children and grandchildren and their friends.  Volunteers, please park behind the building or in the grass to leave plenty of parking for our guests.  Please be sure to thank all the volunteers in each area for their service.  A special word of thanks to Elizabeth and all who help put this event on each year.


Love From Your Pastor

Hi Friends!

So someone called me this morning and asked, “Pastor Michael, don’t you love us anymore?”  I thought, “Oh, no, why would he ask that?”  He went on to tell me that he hadn’t seen my “Love From Your Pastor” e-mail yesterday.  I’m so glad to know someone reads it!  Well I do still love y’all but just didn’t get to it yesterday!  There were two things we read in the daily reading calendar yesterday that made me think of FBC.
First, we read 1 Cor. 15, and I was reminded of Ed Gossien’s excellent message last Sunday on the gospel.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you– unless you believed in vain. 3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. (1 Cor. 15:1-5 ESV)
 



Love From Your Pastor-Louisville Edition

HI Friends!

Just on a short break here at the D6 Conference in Louisville – I better get back to the last session, but wanted to make sure I got out a quick message to all of you!
This has been an amazing time for Elizabeth and I!  I’m anxious to share some of what we’ve experienced with you when we get back.
D6 stands for Deuteronomy 6.  The whole conference is built around the theme from these verses:
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. (Deut. 6:4-7 ESV)

We’ve been learning about the importance of Family Ministry in the Church.  We’ve heard some amazing speakers, including James Dobson!
Looking forward to seeing you Sunday.  Ed Gossien, our Awana missionary, will be speaking in the worship service.  You won’t want to miss it!
Oh, and Elizabeth wants me to remind you we need more candy!  She’d love to see the buckets filled this Sunday!  Then filled again next Sunday!  Please be praying for this upcoming outreach.
Also, have you been praying about possibly being a “Matthew” for the My Hope with Billy Graham event?  Let me know that you are willing to open your home and participate!
Well, gotta go!  Miss y’all (I’m in Kentucky – had to say y’all!).
Love From Your Pastor,
Michael


Love From Your Pastor

Hi FBC Friends!

But I, O LORD, cry to You; in the morning my prayer comes before You. (Psalm 88:13)  There was another reminder in this psalm this morning about the great privilege we have of crying out to the Lord in prayer.  How are you doing in that area?    Are you seeing growth in the amount of time spent in prayer?  Don’t get discouraged if you’re not quite where you want to be yet.  (I’m not where I want to be either… yet.)  Keep pushing yourself to grow, even a little at a time, in the discipline of prayer.  Hopefully prayer will become a “first resort” for us, rather than a “last resort”!
Another great thing in today’s reading was Philippians 2:5-11.  If you didn’t read that today, stop right now, open a Bible (or a Bible app!) and read that amazing passage.  It may be one of the most important, most profound, most central passages for our Christian faith in all of the Bible.  What an amazing equal-with-God, self-emptying, others-serving, divine-and-human-at-the-same-time, obedient, cross-bearing, highly-exalted, name-above-all-names, worthy-of-all-worship, Lord and Savior is the One and Only Jesus Christ!  Have you bowed your knee to Him and confessed Jesus Christ is Lord?!


Love From Your Pastor

Hi again Friends,

I will remember the deeds of the LORD; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. (Ps. 77:11)
TONIGHT IS THE AWANA CARNIVAL & REGISTRATION!  If you have kids that need to get registered for this year’s Awana, make sure you’re here tonight.  It starts at 7pm, but you can come and go anytime between 7 and about 8pm.  The Carnival is free and sure to be a lot of fun for the kids.  If you have invited anyone to come to Awana this year, be sure and remind them about tonight.  The actual club meetings begin in 2 weeks, on Oct. 10th.  Please PRAY for all the kids and parents tonight!  Pray that we will be effective in making disciples of all ages.  Pray for my parents class, which will also begin on Oct. 10.  This year we will work through the book Discovering the Joy of Parenting, by Barbara Bauman (one of the missionaries we support in Japan).  I’m excited about what the Lord will do in the lives of families in our community this year.  But we must pray!!
How are you doing on your Bible intake this week?  How’s your reading coming?  Are you working on memorizing?  Remember, “repetition is the mother of learning!”  Oh, and did I mention that “repetition is the mother of learning!”  And in case I’m not being clear, “repetition is the mother of learning!”  So in other words, well actually the same words:  “repetition is the mother of learning!”  You’re catching on now!  Review, review, review!


Love From Your Pastor

Hi Friends of FBC,

“But this command I gave them: ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people.  And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.'” (Jeremiah 7:23)
I read the above verse in Jeremiah today.  I think it sounds very similar to what we read in Joshua 1:8, as well as a number of statements from Jesus.  What does God seek our obedience?  Why does He want to walk according to His commands?  There are a number of reasons I suppose.  Of course one major reason would be the desire for His name to be glorified.  And He is glorified when we obey Him.  But notice another reason:  “that it may be well with you.”  He’s looking out for what’s best for us too!  Do you want to be “successful” in life?  Hopefully yes, in the way God views success, and not how the world does.  Do you want to experience His blessing?  Sure you do!  Well here’s a formula: Obey His voice.  Walk in all the ways He commands.  Then it will be well with you!  Then you can sing “It is Well with My Soul” and mean it!  But how do you know what to obey if you’re not hearing from Him through His word?  How can you walk in His ways if you aren’t spending time listening to Him tell you what His ways are?  The key to spiritual success in life starts with the Bible!
That’s what I will be talking about again on Sunday.  Last week I discussed hearing, reading, and studying the Word of God.  This week we’ll look at 3 more.  Can you guess what they are?  I will be using a number of Scriptures again.  But to prepare your heart for the sermon, please read Matthew 4:1-11, and notice how Christ used the Word in that instance.  Also, you could read all of Psalm 119 (if you’re feeling ambitious!)  Or just focus on these verses I will refer to Sunday:  Ps. 119:11, 15, 18, 24, 50, 97-99.  Maybe you could choose one of those to memorize and meditate on.  (Uh, oh, hope I didn’t just give away the message!)


Love From Your Pastor

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26 ESV)

The question Jesus asked Martha applies to all of us as well.  Do you believe this?  What an incredible hope we have — eternal life by believing in Jesus Christ, Who is Himself the resurrection and the life!
I want to thank everyone who came out to join us for the 4 Days of Prayer this week.  I really appreciate you being here!  There is a real blessing when we gather together in prayer.  I have to admit that I feel that there were a number of you who missed out on the blessing this week.  I realize that not everyone could come, and there are very legitimate reasons to have missed.  But I have a feeling that there are some who could have, but for a variety of reasons decided not to.  Let me encourage you to stretch yourself when we have these opportunities.  Step out of your comfort zone.  Try something new, even if it seems hard or scary.  Trust me, you wouldn’t regret it.  We’ll do this again at some point, and when we do, I trust we will see more of you there!


Love From Your Pastor

Hello FBC Friends!

Seek the LORD while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. (Isaiah 55:6-7, ESV)
Notice the action words in the above verses:  Seek, call upon Him, forsake, return.  That is our responsibility.  What is the Lord’s response to such actions?  He will have compassion, and He will abundantly pardon.  Let’s be sure that we are doing our part, and trust Him to do His!  I like what Dallas Willard says a number of times in his book, The Great Omission:  “Grace is opposed to earning, but grace is not opposed to effort.”  Yes, we have been saved by grace; we cannot earn it.  But the Lord calls us to put for the effort necessary to grow in our Christian life.  That’s what we’ll be looking at for the next few months in my new sermon series: SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES: Training for Holiness.
In preparation for Sunday, let me encourage you to spend some time meditating on 1 Timothy 4:7-8.  That passage is essentially the theme of the whole series.  Chew on it for awhile and think about the importance of the phrase “train yourself for godliness.”  Why are we to do that?  How are we to do that?  We’ll begin looking at that Sunday morning.  Looking forward to seeing you here!
A few other important items: