Extroverts - This is Your Week

A few weeks ago Pastor Adam spoke in the Auditorium about the Spiritual Discipline of STUDY, and mentioned that this would be easier for the introverts among us but more challenging for the extroverts. This Sunday’s Discipline is FELLOWSHIP, and Adam points out that this is one for the extroverts among us. His message is titled “Disciplining Ourselves to Fellowship.”

Pastor Ray brings the message – “Living Life Together” in the Chapel at 11:00.   He’ll point out the God designed us to be relational, and so we’ll define fellowship and then talk about “the fellowship that is Five Forks.”

SUNDAY SERVICES

8:00 Service in the Auditorium

Praise and Worship: All Praise to Him That Reigns Above…Brethren We Have Met To Worship…The Church of God is People…Blest Be the Tie

Message:   Disciplining Ourselves to Fellowship

9:30 and 11:00 Services in the Auditorium

Praise and Worship: Friend of God…Jesus, All For Jesus…Crown Him…Just to Be With You…My Savior Lives

Message:   Disciplining Ourselves to Fellowship

11:00 Service in the Chapel

Praise and Worship: Jesus Paid It All…Love Divine All Loves Excelling…Jesus is all the World to Me…Make Us, O God, A Church That Shares.

Special Music: Bell Ensemble

Message:   “Living Life Together”

There is a Safe Way to Confess

This is what Pastor Ray pointed out yesterday as we tackled the Spiritual Discipline of “Confession.”   We understand that God desires to forgive (Ray shared the story of the Prodigal Son) and most of us are able to go to Him and confess the sins we’ve committed. This is “the safe way to confess.” No other man or woman knows, and so it’s easy to sin again and go through the same procedure.  

And so Ray challenged us to think about how God works through people – other Believers – to deal with sin. This is certainly more uncomfortable, but Ray pointed out three things that can happen when you confess your sin to another Believer: There is no room for excuses….we expect and receive a word of forgiveness…we consider the seriousness of our sin.   Ray finished the message with these words:

For too long Christians have been known as people of hypocrisy and arrogance with a holier than thou attitude. Confessing our sins to one another will help to change that because it will humble us and the fill us with grace and mercy for others. We want to be transformed through the word of God. It begins with: being brutally honest about our own need for the continual forgiveness of our Savior Jesus Christ. This is helped by confessing our sins to one another.

Pastor Brian brought the message in the Chapel and took us to the verse in I John where we are told, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” He shared that the meaning of “if we confess our sins” means “If we agree with God that what we have thought or said or done was wrong…” (fallen short of the mark)…

Brian also pointed out we need to have the truth in us to understand that we can sin and we also have to know the truth well enough to recognize that we do sin. Then Brian concluded his message by having us look at the results of confession. We saw that there are two qualities of God’s character that will produce excellent results…God is faithful and just and He will forgive and will cleanse!

The Discipline of Confession

“A man who confesses his sins in the presence of a brother knows he is no longer alone with himself; he experiences the presence of God in the reality of the other person.  As long as I am by myself in the confession of my sin, everything stays in the dark, but in the presence of a brother, the sin has to be brought into the light.”  (Bonhoeffer).

This week Pastors Ray (Auditorium) and Brian (Chapel) will be speaking on Confession and how we can establish this spiritual discipline in our lives.  Ray’s message is titled “Confession: A Key to Freedom” and our text will be James 5:16.  Brian’s message is titled “Agreeing with God” and our text is I John 1:9. 

SUNDAY SERVICES

8:00 Service in the Auditorium

Praise and Worship:  O For a Thousand Tongues…When I Survey the Wondrous Cross….I Lay My Sins on Jesus…Lift Up Your Glad Voices

Message:  Confession: The Key to Freedom

9:30 and 11:00 Services in the Auditorium

Praise and Worship:  Sing to the King…You’ll Come…All I Need is You….From the Inside Out…Mighty to Save

Message:  Confession: The Key to Freedom

11:00 Service in the Chapel

Praise and Worship:  God Hath Spoken by His Prophets…The Word of God, Which Ne’er Shall Cease….Kind and Merciful God…Search Me O God

Message:  Agreeing With God