CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune – O God Our Help – p. 10)

God's wisdom formed the vast design

To ransom us when lost;

And Christ's own blood and righteousness

Provided all the costs.

Strict justice, with approving look,

God's covenant was sealed;

When God incarnate undertook

To see the whole fulfilled.

Now sin appears deserving death

And would its curse impose;

But Christ our Substitute and Head

Has lived and died and rose.

Upon the merits of His blood,

Secure and saved by grace;

We dare approach the throne of God

In Christ who took our place.

TODAY’S SERVICES

10:00 a.m. – Brother Jason Renfroe

11:00 a.m. – Brother Mark Pannell

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

• OPENING – Romans 4:6-8

• CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

• HYMN – The Solid Rock – p. 272

• READING – Isaiah 54

• MESSAGE – Convicted of Righteousness (1) – John 16:10

• CLOSING HYMN – I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord! – p. 188

MID-WEEK BIBLE STUDY – WEDNESDAY – 6:30 P.M.

Birthdays: Carolyn Hayes – Jan. 9^th | Jim Byrd – Jan. 11^th
Amy Hiers- Jan. 12^th

Debbie and I are in Ashland, KY, spending time with our family. We will return home tonight. Please pray for us as we travel home.

Next Sunday (January 14) we will serve the Lord's Supper following our morning worship services. Afterward, we will meet for lunch in the fellowship hall.

A local church is a body of brothers and sisters in Christ. We are one family. One life is ours, one love is ours, and one objective (to know more of and to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be found in His righteousness) is ours. This is the comfort and strength of all, that we are all one with Christ in God's sight. We cannot properly minister the Gospel of Christ without each other. One cannot say, "My presence or absence will not be noticed because I don't preach, teach, pray publicly or lead singing." Your presence in the house of God to worship Him is both desired and much needed. You are a comfort and encouragement to other brethren. Another cannot say, "My gift will not be missed because I cannot give as much as some." All of God's people should give whenever and whatever they can give as the Lord blesses them. No gift is too small. What may seem small is great for the cause of Christ. The point is this – We are a family, a body, and the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you." All brethren are equally loved of God and equally needed by one another. –Copied

You who have believed with your hearts unto righteousness, give God the whole glory; and pray that you may continually have more enlivening views of that imputed righteousness on which He has caused you to trust. As on the one hand, nothing can warrant and animate your joy; so on the other (to quote a man, now with God), "Nothing can effectually kill sin but a clear beholding of Christ's righteousness." Cleave to this sure and steadfast anchor, and you will finally arise superior, both to the waves of affliction and to the mud of your own lusts and corruptions. –Augustus Toplady

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD.” (Psalm 122:1)

For true believers there is no substitute for the joy, peace, and comfort of true worship with the saints in feeding upon God’s Word in Christ. It is more than religious ritual of just “going to church.” It is the expression of a thankful heart, thankful to the God of all grace Who has blessed us with all the spiritual blessings and benefits of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is a joy to know that we do not “have to go to church” in order to gain or merit God’s favor and blessings, but to know that we have gained and do merit God’s favor and blessings because of what Christ has accomplished to secure our whole salvation by His righteous merits found in His obedience unto death for us. This is the joy, peace, and comfort of God’s grace to sinners who have nothing in ourselves to recommend us unto God. This is what makes us glad to be among God’s people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. –Pastor Bill Parker

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

Christ contrasts the way of the religious Jews with the way His disciples are to be in praying, in giving, and in forgiving. The Jews were a vengeful and unforgiving people, especially these Pharisees. In these verses, our Lord is showing the way that forgiven sinners are to be toward others because they themselves have been forgiven of so much by God.