Saturday, August 01, 2020

Looking Forward to Learning to Do Things Jesus's Way (2020.08.01 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell Herald)


Hopewell Herald – August 1, 2020

Dear Congregation,

Everyone whom the Lord saves, He brings to the point where they see that Jesus has a way of saving them, and that it is the only way of being saved.

In our Ephesians passages for the next several weeks, we will see that Jesus has a way of keeping us in ministry-shape, a way of building His church, a way of unifying His church, a way of making us know Himself, a way of maturing us, a way of filling us with Himself.

For some of us who walked for some time with the Lord before we learned that He defines ministry, unity, and maturity, this realization was a significant moment in our Christian life—not unlike some who have walked for some time with Him before embracing the doctrines of sovereign grace or before coming to understand the church covenantally or before coming to understand union with Christ.

So, I’m eager for us to be hearing these afternoon texts together and hope that you’ll be praying with me that by God’s helping me preach and all of us to hear, that He will bring us into the enjoyment of those glorious results that He describes in these passages.

Looking forward to His ministry among us in the means of grace tomorrow,

Pastor


LORD'S DAY – August 2, 2020

9:50 a.m. Breakfast Line Opens
10 a.m. Sabbath School
This week, we’re beginning a series on topics related to important issues that people around us are talking much about right now, continuing this week to study what Holy Scripture teaches us about “Racial Reconciliation.” (This week’s subtopic is loving our enemies)

11 a.m. Public Worship
Children’s Catechism for Aug 2
Q40. Who can change a sinner's heart? A. The Holy Spirit alone.

Shorter Catechism for Aug 2
Q48. What are we specially taught by these words before me in the first commandment? A. These words before me in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god.

Psalms and Hymns
TPH392 “Holy Ghost, Dispel Our Sadness”   
ARP34C “O Sons and Daughters, Come” 
TPH257 “Children of the Heavenly Father”

Scripture Text for first portion of worship service

Scripture Readings

Sermon Scripture text and topic
We will be hearing from Genesis 31:1–16 about how God reveals to Jacob that He has seen all that has been done to him, and has been working it for good. Thus, He calls His own back to a life of faith in Him, clinging to Him and His promises in Christ.

1 p.m. Coffee Fellowship and Catechism Class

1:15 p.m. Fellowship Lunch & Open Mic Time
Members are encouraged to bring at least 20% more than their own family would eat, so that there will be plenty for everyone, including any members or guests who are deciding last-minute whether or not to stay.

At open mic time, we’ll begin with birthdays and anniversaries and recitations of the memory verse:
(
Genesis 31:3) Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your family, and I will be with you.”

2:45 p.m Psalm/hymn Sing
Carryover song requests from last week:
Blue: 1, 32AB, 89A, 119S
Red(P):
Red(h): 375, 463, 275, 277, 174, 476, 230
(if you wish to make this week’s requests in advance, please feel free to reply to this email, and let me know!)

3:45 p.m. Evening Sermon from Ephesians 4:11

Hopewell this Month

Hopewell’s Presbytery Prayer Focus for July:
Bethel ARP in Oak Hill, AL

July Psalm of the Month
ARP34C O Sons and Daughters, Come

Upcoming Events
•August 5, Prayer Meeting, 6:30 p.m.
•August 10, Monthly Session Meeting, 6 p.m.
•August 15, Men’s Breakfast, 6:30 a.m.
•August 30, Sermon to “launch” class series on delighted consecration of the Lord’s holy day
•September 13, Lord’s Day series begins in the Sabbath School
•October 2-4, HARPC 200th Anniversary Celebration


Congregational Prayer Requests (new/updates in bold)
▪ Alan McClelland and family in his ministry at Ft. Campbell
▪ Repentance of the Church and the Nations for general rejection of the Kingship of Christ
▪ Comfort and provision for the LeeAnn Billings family as they grieve, and as they complete quarantine, after being exposed to covid at the orthodontist; PRAISE that hours have increased, pray for board meeting decision next week about making her FT
▪ 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 Rebecca Sterling, whose condition seems to be deteriorating again, and who would like to not end up back in the nursing home
▪ Pray with D&L L for her 85yo mother and her heart issues
▪ Pray with P&D W for his mom who fell, and for her precarious situation living alone in Tulsa
▪ Pray with S&D B for Andrew to be able to wean off the medicine well
▪ Pray with S&D B and D&D R for Doug and Dianne’s oldest son Dave. He is not a believer, and is homeless and in despair.
▪ Pray with KC for her acquaintance Linda who doesn’t seem to know the Lord, and just lost 21 year old son; and, for her dear friends who need to live a life of faith and devotion to the Lord; 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; for sweetness in his parents’ remaining time together; for his youngest brother, and the same brother’s son (with CP, and recovering from hip surgery) and daughter
▪ 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; and for Meredeth and baby, due in January
▪ Pray with O&A L for her unbelieving mother w/heart condition, and her family’s grieving over her brother
▪ Pray with C&T P for her dad and family in the loss of his wife Jolene
▪ 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; and for local pastor/constable Darryl Thrasher, who has an aggressive, malignant brain tumor; and for secretary Sarah, an unbeliever who has had cancer before, and had a surgical consult on 7/23 for two new abdominal tumors
▪ 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 his adoption process
▪ Pray with J&S R for the situation with his work furlough; 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; for his whole family, and especially his mother, as they grieve the passing away of his father; and sister Kathy, who just lost her husband; and for Celeste and her ministry to her professing friend who has decided that homosexuality isn’t wrong
▪ Pray with S&V Y for his parents and siblings as they deal with his father’s declining health and his mother’s dementia; and for her niece Carina and her husband Luke and their newborn daughter Callaway who was born with an acidemia and is recovering from an extended period of high ammonia in her blood
Please pray with Bethel ARP in Oak Hill, AL, throughout the month of August
▪ 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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