Recordings▫Prayer Meeting▫Memory Work▫Lord's Day Prep [Hopewell This Week—2025.02.04 Hopewell Harbinger]

Hopewell Harbinger ▪ February 2–9, 2025 ▪ Hopewell This Week

The worship booklet with Hopewell @Home devotionals is attached. The devotionals are not yet complete, but will be available as needed at hpwl.org/hah. May the Lord glorify Himself as He conforms you and your family to Christ, and employs you in His service.

Recent Preaching Audio/Video/Transcript Links

—2025.01.22 Midweek Sermon [Proverbs 10:1–5, Wise Motivations]. Wisdom is motivated by whatever God promises to it.
—2025.01.29 Midweek Sermon [Proverbs 10:1–21, All Ears]. With the delight that He has in Himself, within the Godhead, the LORD delights to create and redeem mankind—a delight into which He brings the redeemed, by means of His Word.

—2025.01.26 Sabbath School [Westminster Confession 21.5: Oaths and Vows as Worship—Hopewell 101]. We continued studying through the Scriptural doctrine that our congregation confesses. This week, we continued Westminster Confession chapter 21—continuing in Article 5, and what makes oaths and vows a part of worship generally, and corporate worship, specifically.
—2025.02.02 Sabbath School [Westminster Confession 21.5: Corporate Fasting and Thanksgiving—Hopewell 101]. We continued studying through the Scriptural doctrine that our congregation confesses. This week, we continued Westminster Confession chapter 21—continuing in Article 5 with Scripture’s call to corporate fasting, as God’s providence occasions it.

—2025.01.26 Morning Sermon [Matthew 14:22–36, YHWH, Who Came Near to Save]. The Son came near, as the God-Man, to save us.
—2025.02.02 Morning Sermon [Matthew 15:1–20, Defiled to the Core]. What comes from us is unclean, so we must have Christ, and what comes from Him, by His Spirit.

Links to Recordings; Midweek Meeting; MEN'S BREAKFAST; Memory Work [Hopewell This Week—2023.10.24 Hopewell Harbinger]

Hopewell Harbinger ▪ October 22–October 29, 2023

The worship booklet with Hopewell @Home devotionals is attached. They are also available online, at hpwl.org/hah on the day of the devotional. May the Lord glorify Himself as He conforms you and your family to Christ, and employs you in His service.

There is not a public recording of the nomination process for the diaconate, but hopefully the explanation on the attached sheet will be clear enough; feel free to use it to print your own deacon candidate recommendation form. Forms will be kept and replenished on the table in the hallway of the Fellowship Hall.

Please note the Monthly Men's Breakfast bleow.

When the Gospel Is Bad News; Session Meeting Digest, Lord's Day Prep, etc. (2021.05.21 Pastoral Letter and Hopewell 'Harbingerald')

Hopewell “Harbingerald” – May 21, 2021

It was an unusually busy week, in many ways, for me. Thank you for understanding. Some items that are usually included in the early week “Harbinger” appear here for the first time this week. I’m sorry that your use of them for Lord’s Day preparation is a few days shorter this time around. Note also the attachment of the Session Meeting Digest from Monday night’s meeting.

This week, I also received a pdf of our packet for the General Synod meeting June 8–10. There are a number of important items, especially a memorial from 1^st Presbytery to bring ARP diaconates back toward their original biblical parameters, and the ongoing work of the Restructuring Committee to decentralize and decommercialize ministry from being a function of Synod and agencies to being a function of Presbyteries/Sessions, centered upon the ministry of Word, Sacrament, and Prayer.

Please continue in prayer for our Session, Presbytery, and Synod!

——

Dear Congregation,

In Luke 2:34–35 this week, I noticed two important things.

³⁴ Then Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign which will be spoken against ³⁵ (yes, a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

The first is that the gospel is good news that isn’t good for everyone. There are many for whom the redemption and kingship of Christ is very bad news. “This Child is destined for the fall of many.” Many do not bow the knee, kiss the Son, and trust in Him. So, they will indeed perish when His wrath is kindled but a little (cf. Psalm 2:11–12).

The second thing is that those who love Jesus the most are hurt the deepest, when He is rejected by the many. In addition to atoning for believers’ sins, the cross was the great instance in which our Lord was “a sign which was spoken against.” In addition to atoning for believers’ sins, the cross was a great instance of “the thoughts of many hearts revealed.”

Yet, it was not only at the cross that our Lord Jesus is God’s great sign which reveals the thoughts of the hearts of those who speak against Him. This happens whenever Christ is preached, and to a large extent in churches and cultures that resist His kingship. What does our level of grief and indignation at this tell us about the level of our love for Jesus?

Surely, we do not love Him as we ought. But He has loved us perfectly! And He is perfecting believers’ love. This He does most of all in the public administration of the ordinary means of grace, of which He has composed His worship. He sets Himself before us as the especial display of the glory of God, even as He uses the means by which He does so to conform our own love to His perfect love.

Looking forward to beholding His glory and having our love increased by His grace together,

Pastor 

2020.07.21 Hopewell Harbinger

Hopewell This Week, July 20–26, 2020

(attachments not available in the online version; to receive via email, click the red link at the left)

From Elder Mangum (you may contact him with any questions that you may have; this is the same course that was taught at Hopewell last fall, and all who participated in it found it quite worthwhile): The Combat Lifesaver Course is taught to every person who enters the U.S. Army. The Course teaches the soldier how to keep himself and his buddies alive until Medic or other medical personnel are available. The context is trauma such as gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, etc. My organization, Combat Edge, teaches this “First Aid” Course to civilians. Much personal study is required prior to the course. The Course will be taught Saturday, August 29, 2020, at the American Legion Hall in Columbia, TN (8am-5pm). Any adult who wishes to take this course please contact me, Dr. Samuel Richardson, by phone or text at 931-398-8971, or Voice call 601-668-1144. Advance Registration is required.

The Session of elders met last night for the regular monthly meeting. The “Session Meeting Digest” is attached.

▫Attached is a pdf of Lord’s Day’s Worship Booklet, complete with Hopewell @Home devotionals for this week, in addition to 8.5x11's of the memory verse and catechism questions that can be used as posters to help with memory work.

▫The links are now active for the Sabbath School class (Racial Reconciliation, Part 3: True Peace Found Only in Christ),  morning sermon (Eph 4:1–7, “The High Calling, Heavenly Congregation, and Humble Conduct of Church Members”), and evening sermon (Genesis 30:1–24, “The Gospel of Grace: Salvation by God's Goodness Alone and God's Power Alone”) from yesterday, as well as last week’s Prayer Meeting lesson (James 5:16b–18, “The Prayer of Faith That Works and Accomplishes Much”).