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I believe our observance of the Lord’s Supper last Lord’s Day was a blessing. If you were out, I encourage you to listen to the message and get a copy of the sermon notes. There is much confusion regarding the Lord’s Supper and I trust that the message will help you gain a better understanding of this most significant event in the life of the church. We will have a new Lord’s Supper table soon, which will be similar to the one we borrowed for last Sunday.
Oswald Chambers said, “Just think of the invincible, unconquerable, and untiring patience of Jesus, who lovingly says, 'Come to me….'" He was referring to the Lord’s invitation in Matthew, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light," (Matthew 11:28-30). What a Savior! And what a joy that we can take our burdens to the Lord. Are you coming to Jesus on a regular basis?
I am grateful for those of you are coming to prayer meeting on Wednesday nights. We are having a great time in our study of “How to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life,” by Dr. Gregory Frizzell. He will be with us in a couple of weeks; please make plans to be here for every session of our “Going Deeper with God” Conference.
This Sunday I will begin preaching through the book of Philippians. The church at Philippi was one of the strongest in the early days of the church. Please read this introduction to the book that I wrote several years ago for some Sunday School lessons I had prepared on the Book:
“Christ, the Source of Joy for the Church”
“Philippians is an exciting book and has proven to be a great source of encouragement in my Christian life. My prayer is that it will be a great encouragement to you as you study this book. The theme is “Christ, the source of joy for the church.” In other words, “Joy and Church can go together!” Most of the commentaries on Philippians will list the theme of the book as having to do with joy. There is no question that joy is a major emphasis of the book. However, there is a great emphasis on Christ as well. Without Christ there would be no joy for the church or the individual believer.
“Because of what Christ has done for us, and because of what He is doing in us, we can have joy regardless of the difficulties we may be facing in life. We will see that the Apostle Paul wrote this book in the midst of dire circumstances. He was in prison. He had been abandoned by many who had previously supported him. He was burdened with the care of all the churches he had established. Yet through all of this he was able to write to this great church and encourage them to be joyful in spite of their difficulties.
“Another title for this series of lessons might be, “How to Triumph over Troubles with Joy Through Christ.” The church is plagued today with bad attitudes, broken relationships, and a spirit of bitterness. Often when a church is having some degree of success in evangelism or edification the devil will do everything in his power to disrupt and distract the church by creating factions and irritations between members of the fellowship. Paul saw this as a very present danger for the church at Philippi. It is a danger for our church and for any Bible-believing fellowship that is sincere in its desire to obey the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20) and the Great Commandment (Matt. 22:35-40).”
Looking forward to what God will do at Tabernacle this coming Sunday. Please be present with your Bibles in hand as we worship the Lord together.
Blessings, YFJS, Bro Tom