Bible Verse for Sunday Service February 09, 2025
1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Announcements:
The new church directories are on the foyer table. Please make sure you pick up a copy so that you can keep up-to-date with the names, addresses, and phone numbers of our Church family.
March 22nd is the date of this year’s Awana Grand Prix where the Awana kids will be putting together cars to race down the track on race day. The kits will be available soon for purchase. If you are a kindergartner through 6th grade, you can enter. If any adults and teens want to participate, we could have an open class. If you can help, we will need people for the race and lunch, please let Pastor know.
We have put back the dates for our VBS to June 16-20 due to conflicts with commitments with our families and leaders.
Today in Church History, Feb 9, 1709: Five year old John Wesley was rescued from his father’s burning parsonage in Epsworth, England. In later years, he called himself “a brand plucked from the burning.” A reference to Zechariah 3:2.
Special: “Yes, I know”
Jimmy and Sharon Sutton treated us to and oldie, goodie, Yes, I know. This song was made famous by the Gaither Vocal Band in the late 90s when it was a hit for them. But, it is based on them reworking a hymn written by Annabelle Waterman in 1920 on the occasion of her alcoholic husband coming to faith in the Lord. She and a friend had been praying for him, when he became very scared during a drunken bout. He asked how to be saved, and she helped him know the Lord. Her joy at seeing her husband in his right mind and saved caused her to write this song. You can watch below, or on Rumble.
Sermon:
Today, Pastor Jim continued preparing us for a new pastor by preaching on Titus 1:9-16 in a sermon titled “Dealing with Differing Doctrine.” To introduce today’s sermon, Pastor Jim reminded us of the old children’s story, little red riding Hood. In this story, the protagonist notices that something is off. That noticing is discernment. And, the story reminder is apropos because Jesus is warning us about wolves in sheep’s clothing, just like the story. Pastor dealt with how we should discern, and deal with wrong teaching in three points.
Firstly, Pastor Jim talked about his problem under the heading of the preacher and sound doctrine. Obviously, the preachers duty is to minister to the congregation through the word. To do that he must be a convinced student of the word, treating it as absolute truth. We see here in the United States now a drifting from truth. In addition to holding to the truth of scripture, the preacher must be an effective communicator of the truth. Central to understanding this is that the power is in the word, not in the man. The key here is to accurately and continually proclaimed God’s word.
Next Pastor examine the problems with false doctrine. He noted that in every letter written by Paul to the various churches, Paul warns about this problem. Pastor talked about the keys to seeing it and dealing with it. It is obviously different than the word of God. We know that our Canon of scripture is complete. And anyone saying they have something new is not offering something from God. So we should study and compare to have a good familiarity with a genuine thing so we can spot the counterfeit.
Another problem with false doctrine is that it is deceptive. Sometimes the deception is is smooth. Pastor gave the example of cults like the Mormons, listening carefully and saying that they believe all the same things as we do, but have something to add. Usually, they are using biblical words in a different way. They take the words to mean something different. Therefore, we should be careful.
False doctrine is also so disturbing as this passage teaches. It subverts whole households. It causes dissension in families. The old ground for dissension was the need to be circumcised. But, regardless of the issue, Satan can use the conflict that results.
Lastly, false doctrine is defiling. It hurts our mind and conscience. We need inward purity so that we are not listening or hearing false doctrine. It is important to check everything against the word of God.
For his third point, Pastor Jim talked about the prescription to stabilize doctrine, or staying true to the truth. The key is a steady diet of healthy doctrine. Also, it is important that the church promptly remove unhealthy doctrine. We need to get rid of it. This is why the scripture talks about rebuking somebody sharply. We don’t need to hear it. Turn off false teaching, which takes too many forms. As a reminder, we all need discernment, so let’s pray for each other, that we have discernment, and that God would bring us a good discerning pastor to replace Pastor Jim.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.