Hopewell Herald – May 23, 2020
Dear Congregation,
After last week’s considerations of necessary
and instrumental (NOT meritorious!) good works in Gen 26:5 and Eph 2:10, it was
gratifying and moving to hear someone say, “I have had a real hard time with
the idea of good works, but I hear what you’re saying in these passages, and I
know it’s true, but it’s just so hard for me because I struggle so much.”
This is gratifying, because the good
works of believers honor the Lord and glorify Christ for the difference that He
makes in those whom He redeems. But it’s moving, because I so strongly feel the
pain of that struggling!
This is why it’s so important to see not
only Isaac’s failures in last week’s morning sermon Scripture passage, but
especially God’s surprising mercy. The Bible tells us the truth about
ourselves, and it’s not a flattering truth. But the Bible also tells us the
truth about Christ, and it’s a GLORIOUS truth!
It is well and good for us to feel our
struggle, if it gives us yet another opportunity to turn away from ourselves
and to the Lord in repentance. Isaac is going to continue to have his ups and
downs for the next several passages, but the Lord is faithful and persevering in
His great power and great mercy!
Indeed, once our time of weakness and
remaining sin is concluded, we will leave behind these opportunities for
repentance. For then, we will be continuously, lovingly and thankfully focused
upon Christ.
For now, however, let us rejoice over
every opportunity for us struggling believers to be pointed back to our Lord’s
great power and mercy in the lives of repenting sinners. In tomorrow morning’s
passage, we will see Isaac’s surprising failure give way to an even more
surprising spiritual recovery. Praise be to the God whose power and mercy so
work in the lives of a struggling believer like Isaac!
And like us, praise God. Looking forward
to worshiping Him together in this passage with you,
Pastor
LORD'S DAY – May 24,
2020
9:50 a.m. Breakfast
Line Opens (feel free to bring your own, separate food if preferred)
10 a.m. Bible Class
We are studying the ARP’s confessed
theology from Scripture. We’ll continue studying Election as the ultimate
source in the application of redemption to believers
11 a.m. Public Worship
▫Shorter Catechism
for May 24
Q38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
Q38. What benefits do believers receive from Christ at the resurrection? A. At the resurrection, believers, being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.
Psalms and Hymns
Scripture Text for first portion of
worship service
Scripture Readings
Sermon Scripture text and topic
We will be hearing from Genesis 26:12–22 about the fruitfulness that the Lord
is pleased to grant, even and especially in barren lands and hearts, so that
all the praise and glory is His!
12:45 p.m. Coffee
Fellowship and Catechism Class
1 p.m. Fellowship
Lunch & Open Mic Time
There will be plenty for everyone, but
as with breakfast, those who are uncomfortable eating from the line are
encouraged to bring their own food that they keep separate.
At open mic time, we’ll begin with
birthdays and anniversaries and recitations of the memory verse: (Genesis 26:22) And he
moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he
called its name Rehoboth, because he said, “For now the Lord has made room for
us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
2:30 p.m Psalm/hymn
Sing
Carryover song requests from last week:
Carryover song requests from last week:
Blue: 104C
Red: 459, 485, 340, 478
Red: 459, 485, 340, 478
After Party at ???? (No open invitations
to congregation yet at time of writing)
Hopewell this Month
Hopewell’s
Presbytery Prayer Focus for May:
Pressly-Memorial
ARP in Red Level, AL
May
Psalm of the Month
ARP78B O Come, My People, to My
Law
Upcoming Events
•May 27, Prayer Meeting, 6:30p.m.
•June 8, Session Meeting, 6p.m.
•October 2-4,
HARPC 200th Anniversary Celebration
Smooth Stones from a
Babbling Brook
Internet links for
this week
1.
Pastor Bob Godfrey asks, “Does
God Miss Our Worship?” It’s difficult to emphasize enough how much this
concerns me, and how thankful I am for this article. Reading through the Bible
in big chunks with my family this year, it’s stunning to see how much God cares
to be worshiped exactly as He says, and how different this is from the
prevailing attitude toward worship by the church in Scripture and in our own
day. It’s almost unsurprising that covid hasn’t brought a season of repentance,
but it’s still deeply grievous.
2.
On the other hand, our hope is in the Lord. And He
HAS used such circumstances to bring a genuine season of repentance before.
Join hose Scott Brown as he interviews Pastor Gavin Beers about one such incident.
May the Lord be pleased to bring revival in our day!
3.
Canadian ARP minister Stephen Richardson has taken flack for his
pervious article (the “open
letter to the churches”) linked in this space, but thanks be to God, who
has kept him thinking more about what God thinks than what man thinks. I think
that in this more recent article, he thoughtfully challenges
us on whether our churches are giving to Caesar that which belongs to God.
4.
My friend Pastor Rob Hill’s fingerprints—and really, His God’s
fingerprints—are all over this article by his wife Megan on how pastors are Jesus’s
plan for shepherding believers. We live in an anti-authoritarian,
anti-office-bearer, type age. But pastors and elders who realize that this is
about Christ and His plan and power, rather than our own, are glad to lay
themselves down in the work. We submit to them and entrust ourselves to their
care and leadership on earth, because we are confident from Scripture that it
is really Christ who is caring for us and leading us from heaven.
5.
OPC Minister Michael Spangler has endured much for conscientiously
defending Christ’s order for teaching and governance in the churches. I thought
that the
third installment of his recent series of articles was the most helpful.
As a pastor who has been alarmed by the rising number of women teachers of the
churches (not for any lack of appreciation of women, but because my hope is in
Christ alone, who is clear in His appointment of particular men as the teachers
and rulers of the church), it has been alarming to see the rise of women
leading worship and lecturing the churches on the need to be instructed by female
voices. More alarming has been the hesitance of faithful men to speak up against
this, and the viciousness of the storm denouncing them when they do. These are
things that (as far as I know) don’t touch us too directly at Hopewell, but it
is important for us to know what is happening in the broader “Reformed” world,
especially in our sister churches.
Congregational Prayer Requests
(new/updates in bold)
▪ Pray with the Reformed sidewalk-counseling group @PP in
Nashville for their Wednesday and Friday ministries
▪ Early Rain Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church,
Christians in Nigeria, and other persecuted churches like them; Pastor Wang Yi
in prison.
▪ Alan McClelland and his ministry at
Ft. Rucker
▪ Repentance of the Church and the
Nations, as well as comfort and strength through the advancement of the gospel against
the backdrop of SARS-CoV-2 and its accompanying panic, especially joining the
rest of the ARP at 9a.m. central every day
▪ Comfort and provision for the LeeAnn Billings
family as they grieve, especially for new work, as the university just
eliminated her position from the department
▪ Pray for the Jeffers family, whose
granddaughter Isabelle (14) and then her mother Norma both attempted suicide; there’s
a long way to go medically, financially, and especially spiritually for all
involved; please keep praying for them and for Sue’s ministry to them
▪ Pray for Kacey and family, going
through difficult trial
▪ Pray with D&L L for her 85yo mother
and her heart issues
▪ Pray with KC for her acquaintance Linda who doesn’t seem to know the Lord, and just
lost 21 year old son; and, for sister Diane and her husband Frank, who need a
living faith in Christ; and for friend Patty, a believer, that she will
continue to do well after treatment for uterine cancer
▪ Pray with D&M G that her mother
would continue healing well and not smoking; for Sean; for Jeremiah and
Julianna
▪ Pray with W&C G for her mother’s
health and caregivers; and for spiritual (and total) well-being of son Greg
▪ Pray with J&H H for his father’s cancer and recovery from
open-heart surgeries; and sweetness in his parents’ remaining time together;
for his youngest brother
▪ Pray for James Heard to make good
choices and to walk with an serve the Lord in this next phase of his life.
▪ Pray with H&K H for their health (especially
Karen’s back, which keeps getting reinjured, and their schedule which it
affects) and for many of their loved ones; needing Christian fellowship: her
grandmother and father, widow Hope w/4 children, Brown family of 7 (wayward son
Nicholas); needing health: her mom, sister Lisa and husband w/high bp, Martina,
Donna, Joyce; needing spiritual life: Velvet and Reagan (lost their
sister/daughter to a brutal murder), neighbors Shawn, Merlin, & children;
other widows: Libby, Naomi (w/daughter Stacia), Stephanie (w/many children,
were missionaries); friend Andrea’s New Age friends; Charles & Robert to be
able to forgive; friends w/family problems: Dave, Lee, Melodie, Cole; spiritual
growth and wife for friend Scott; their family’s evangelism, recently
firefighter Dalton; Riggs to grow mighty in the Lord; Harwell’s sleep issues.
▪ Pray with R&M J for Meredith,
young daughter of M’s college friend Ashely (and husband Brad), who’s taking
medicine to shrink her brain tumor
▪ Pray with O&A L for her
unbelieving mother w/heart condition, and her family’s grieving over her
brother
▪ Pray with CM for comfort for
Sheriff’s Reserve James Wilson and family in the loss of his wife Andra; and
friend Michael Duval and his recovery from knee surgery
▪ PRAISE with SM for successful
surgery, and pray for recovery
▪ Pray with C&T P for wisdom for
him about what to do with two good career choices, and for the
conversion of her brother Todd; and for her dad and family in the loss of
his wife Jolene, and C&T’s trip to Kansas for the funeral.
▪ Pray with AR for
friend Caleb Figura w/mysterious but debilitating gut illness
▪ Pray with D&K R for their
family’s growth in godliness, especially dying to self, godly speech, and
Lord’s Day keeping; for Micah, Rachel, and baby girl due in July; and for local
pastor/constable Darryl Thrasher, who has an aggressive, malignant brain tumor
▪ Pray with GR for friend Abby to come
to faith in Christ
▪ Pray with JeR for believing friend
Jeanette Cary’s CHF, Fibromyalgia, & slow-healing wound
▪ Pray with J&M R for baby Bentley,
and their family’s adjustment and future with him
▪ Pray with J&S R for her nephew,
who needs life in Christ; and for her and her family in the loss of her father,
especially spiritual impact on her sisters and nephews; and for her sister
Rebecca’s pregnancy; and for the whole family, and especially his mother, as
they grieve the passing away of his father
▪ Pray with S&V Y for his parents
and siblings as they deal with his father’s declining health and his mothers
dementia
▪ Please pray with Pressly Memorial ARP
in Red Level, AL, throughout the month of May
▪ Please pray for the TN-AL Presbytery
to be enabled to plant a faithful church with the resources available and
earmarked for that purpose
▪ Please pray for all ARP presbyteries, churches, and agencies
▪ Please pray for our nation, state, community
and all the officials thereof
Prayer, with thanksgiving, being one
special part of religious worship, is by God required of all men: and, that it
may be accepted, it is to be made in the name of the Son, by the help of his
Spirit, according to his will, with understanding, reverence, humility,
fervency, faith, love, and perseverance; and, if vocal, in a known tongue. (WCF
21.3)
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