On Thursday, August 11, 2011, Bro. Larry Raynes will celebrate his 70th birthday. Brother and Sister Raynes have been a blessing to our church family, and on Sunday night, August 14, he will be preaching in our evening service. At the conclusion of the service, we will receive a love offering for this faithful man of God.
The second weekend in November we will devote our attention to what God’s Word says about the home and family. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” As our hearts turn towards “home and hearth” during the upcoming holiday season, my prayer is that God will burden our parents and give our fathers a clear vision of what each family could be for Christ.
On Friday night, November 11, Pastor Farrell Shepherd, from North Wilkesboro, NC, and his family will be with us in a service that will begin at 7:00 P.M. Brother Shepherd and his sons have a quartet, and the boys also sing in a mixed group with one of their cousins. You will be blessed by their music! Brother Shepherd is also passionate about God’s plan for the Christian home. He preaches God’s truth in a clear, powerful, easy-to-understand manner. He is also a truly humble, Christ-like man, who proves with his life and ministry that he realizes, “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” Come praying and expecting God to give you more light to walk in!
On Saturday evening, we will enjoy a covered-dish dinner at the church at 5:30 P.M. Afterwards, we will move into the sanctuary for a good time of fellowship, music, testimonies, and a devotion from God’s Word. Bro. Gil Bates and family from Lake City, TN, we will be with us for the Saturday evening fellowship.
Then, on Sunday, November 13, we will begin our day with the 10:00 A.M. Sunday School hour. Brother Gil will be teaching a men’s class, and Sister Kelly will be teaching the ladies. Brother Gil will preach in the 11:00 hour, and throughout the weekend, we’ll enjoy special music from the family as well. After the morning service, we will enjoy a meal together (provided! Take the day off ladies!), and then have an afternoon service beginning around 2:00 P.M. Bro. Larry Raynes, member of Progress Baptist and faithful man of God for over 40 years, will close out this special weekend for our church.
The Bible has a lot to say about, “preparing our heart.” Please read, pray, and meditate on what God’s Word says to fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, and children in preparation for this special weekend. As we soften our hearts with the water of the Word of God, we will be far more likely to receive and retain the instruction we will receive during these days.
On Sunday morning, August 7, 2011, Brother Phillip Willis and family will be with us in the morning service. Brother Willis will be preaching in the 10:00 A.M. service as well as presenting the ministry of Fair Haven Home for Men; an outreach of his home church – Life Baptist Church in St. Stephen, SC. You will be blessed by these faithful man, his family, and the ministry God has given to their home church. Come praying and expecting God to speak to your heart!
On Saturday, August 20, Progress Baptist Church will begin the 2011-2012 Piedmont Quizzing Association Bible Quiz season. The first quiz of the year will be held at Faith Baptist Church in Taylors, SC. Quizzers from Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia will be participating in the quizzes that day. This year, the quizzing material is the Gospel of John, and the August quiz will cover chapters 1-4.
Beginning on Sunday night, October 16 at 7:00 P.M., Progress Baptist will enjoy Pastor Johnny Jones from Oceana, WV, in four nights of special revival services. Brother Jones pastors the Turkey Ridge Baptist Church, and he will be a blessing to you and your family!
Please note that ALL four services will begin at 7:00 P.M., including the Sunday night service.
Visitors from the western NC and upstate SC area are encouraged to be in these special services as well. Our friends from other areas are welcome, too! Please let us know if you would like to spend a few days in the mountains of western NC during the beautiful month of October, and enjoy some good preaching and singing at the same time. We will be glad to assist you with information regarding lodging in the greater Hendersonville area.
Please join with us in prayer for God to do a great work in our hearts during these special services.
On Sunday, August 28, the young people from the church will join the Erwin family in their weekly nursing home outreach. The group from our church has been well-received the past couple of months, and we want to be a blessing to the residents, their family members who may be there visiting, as well as to the staff.
All those who are going will go directly to the nursing home after our morning service. The church will be open and available for anyone wanting to come back and stay for the afternoon.
On Sunday, August 21, the church family will have our monthly fellowship after the evening service. The Hart family is expecting their little girl in mid-September, and our August fellowship will include a baby shower for our ladies and Sister Kelly to enjoy!
So, bring a good variety of snacks, and let’s be a blessing to the Harts as they prepare for the arrival of their little girl.
Proverbs 7 gives a clear description of the “strange woman,” and has been preached and taught for generations to warn men and women alike of her dangers. Surely in the sensual day we live in, our ladies need to be reminded to avoid any characteristic that would identify them with this wicked woman, and our men must be warned to stay away from this woman whose house is, “the way to hell.”
Sadly, though, the key to the chapter is likely found in verses 19 and 20. “For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey; he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.” Could this “absentee husband” be the root cause of this woman’s wandering heart? I believe it is! He hasn’t had to go away to find work in order to provide for his family; he left with a bag of money. He has very likely made the mistake many men have made. That is, once he won the heart of this lady and married her, he then allowed his heart to move on to other conquests. There is apparently an adventurous, untamed spirit inside of “Mr. Goodman!” She very possibly possessed this same, wild-at-heart, free-spirited type of personality. Maybe that is what initially attracted them to each other. Now, it seems he wants to continue living this adventurous life while she stays at home; prim, proper, and domesticated!
I Peter 3:7 instructs husbands to dwell with their wives, “according to knowledge.” The goodman of the house in Proverbs chapter 7 did NOT do this! While she is (as we all are) responsible for her reprehensible behavior, there is more to this story than meets the eye in a brief reading of the chapter. May God help us as men to love our wife as Christ loved the church. Let’s learn them, and dwell with them, “according to knowledge.” The Christian home is under constant Satanic attack, and we have to vigilant with the “Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God,” if we are going to withstand in this evil day.
We only need to read the first few verses of Philippians chapter 1 to realize that the Apostle Paul had a special relationship with this church. Phrases like, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you,” “making request with joy,” and “your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now,” are reserved for this body of believers.
In chapter 2 we find this man of God with a pastor’s heart provoking and challenging the church to become everything God would have them to be. In much the same way, a parent, coach, or teacher will often work a little longer, even be tougher at times, with that child or student in whom he sees exceptional ability and potential. As spiritual teachers, our heart is thrilled when we see others reach beyond what they are currently doing for God. Likewise, our hearts our burdened, at times broken, when we see people fall short of what God wants to, and CAN do with their life. In chapter 2 of Philippians, we will look at four important areas in which God and His man wanted this church to excel.
First is the vital area of unity.Verse 2 uses these expressions, like-minded, one accord, and one mind. Surely these attributes are as important now as they were then! The world mocks and laughs at the division among churches and between churches. They see fighting, turmoil, and division in the life they are living in sin and in the world. They do not need to see the same thing at the house of God. They key to having this vital component of a truly Godly church is found in the next, much-needed character trait.
Humility is the oil that will make everything run smoothly around the house of God! Look at our Supreme Example in verse seven, “no reputation,” “form of a servant,” and “made in the likeness of men.” What a difference we would see in our homes and churches if every member would strive to have the mind of Christ in this life-changing area of humility. Imagine a church where the members are truly striving to serve one another. Think about the Christ-like spirit in a church where the pastor truly sees himself as a minister, or as defined in Scripture, a waiter. (Matthew 20:26)
The third component of a thriving local body of believers is charity. Vastly different from our modern idea of pity, Biblical charity is simply love in action. In other words, when the first two elements are found in the local body, a natural outgrowth will be brotherly love that has feet! In other words we do not love in “word and tongue” but rather, “deed and truth” as described in I John 3:18. This is the kind of love that “worketh no ill to his neighbor” and “thinketh no evil” in I Corinthians 13. Impossible? Absolutely not! What is required is for each member of the body to walk in the Spirit and allow God’s love to work in him and through him.
Next is the much-needed area of purity. In verse 15 Paul uses these words/phrases to describe his heart’s desire for the church: blameless, harmless, without rebuke, and shine as lights; all synonyms for a pure, clean testimony in a wicked and gainsaying world. Sadly, preaching and teaching on separation from the world is typically labeled legalism. A growing, deepening, maturing walk with God, however, will and MUST allow us to see harm and danger in things that would not have bothered us in the past. Peter wrote that we were ignorant when we walked in these former lusts. (I Peter 1:14) This is not legalism, but it is growing in grace, and becoming more like Christ. In the evil day we live in, it is not time for Bible-believers to become slothful in this area of purity. We are “the bride of Christ,” and we should strive to walk worthy of the Lord.
The final result of unity, humility, charity, and purity, will be the equally-important component of vitality. Many churches today are weak and anemic. The singing is lifeless, there is little/no worship, and you are left wondering if the preacher even wanted to be there. There should life, joy, and energy in a Bible-preaching, Christ-honoring New Testament Church! Members who are truly living for the Lord and fighting the devil all week should be thrilled about coming together with their church family to worship Jesus and get re-loaded to fight the enemy for another week. Paul said in verse 12 of chapter 2, “work out your own salvation”, and in verse 16, “holding forth the Word of Life.” Both of these ideas carry with them the idea of vim, vigor, and vitality!
In these last days the seeker-sensitive movement has confused many so-called Bible believers as to the real purpose of the church. We need only to read the “Owner’s Manual” to see what God’s purpose is for the church of Jesus Christ. Thankfully, it is a job we cannot do. But when we realize we cannot, we learn that only He can. Then when we allow Him to work through us, He alone receives the glory. God’s purpose for the church at Philippi 2,000 years ago is STILL His purpose for the local church today. Let’s return to His blueprint and rely on Him for His power to get it done!
This Sunday, August 7, we will have our weekly Spanish service at 2:00 Sunday afternoon.
If members of the church family have contact with Hispanics in the community who express an interest in the previously-announced time, please ask them to call Brother Doug using the number on our Spanish tract. We will do whatever is necessary to reach out to them!
