Bible Verse for Sunday Service November 17, 2024
Ephesians 5:18-20
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Announcements:
Welcome to Next Journey Quartet! We are blessed to have this gospel quartet with us today. We look forward to hearing their heart warming and God honoring music. They will sing both during our service, and after our dinner today.
After service today, we look forward to a delicious Thanksgiving meal as well as a time of fellowship around the table. Join us please for the meal, and stay for the music time that follows. We will gather in the sanctuary to be blessed by our musical guests.
We will provide an opportunity for you to show your appreciation for our musical guests through giving. You can use the offering envelope located on the back of the chairs for your gift or designate your check to “Next Journey.” Please make your check payable to Shepherd Bible Church.
Today is Shoe Box Sunday. We will send the 57 shoeboxes that the AWANA kids packed to be included in the Samaritan’s Purse Christmas Child project. Please pray that God would use these boxes and gifts to bring joy in children’s lives as an opportunity for them to hear the gospel, and to receive Christ.
Shepherd Bible Church Special November 17 “Next Journey”
Lil saw the Southern Gospel Quartet, Next Journey, perform and recommended that they perform at Church. After review, Pastor agreed and so they performed at our Thanksgiving celebration during service, and in the celebration itself. This quartet began in 2001 by four men with a love for Southern Gospel music, and the desire to share the message of the Gospel through music. They have a website and are also on Facebook. You read about them through clicking on the links. Below is the program they performed during service or click here to see it on Rumble.
Sermon:
Pastor Jim preached on several verses in Ephesians 5:18-20 in a sermon he titled “Thanksgiving is… Singing.” Today’s sermon is second in a series as to the true meaning of Thanksgiving in preparation for that celebration. To introduce this topic, Pastor remarked that music is everywhere. We like to listen and sing. God gave us this ability so that we may praise Him. Pastor worked through his ideas in three points.
Firstly, in considering these verses, Pastor noted regarding the command to be filled with the Holy Spirit that all believers receive the Holy Spirit upon salvation. So, it is not a command to receive more. Instead, it is a command to be influenced by the Holy Spirit so that all your actions flow from His influence in your life. To make this point clear, Paul compares and contrasts that influence with the influence of alcohol to drunkenness in a person’s life. That, according to most law enforcement officers, will lead to law breaking and trouble.
If we are under the influence of the Holy Spirit, one effect will be the desire to sing praises to the Lord. We worship through song. We know how God appreciates this through scripture. Solomon’s dedication of the temple in 2 Chronicles 5, featured 120 priests with trumpets. In response to this worship, God came down and filled the temple with his presence.
Naturally, this all leads to the resolve to give thanks for all things. Of course in adverse circumstances this is hard to do. But, we can do this in the middle of adversity or drudgery. Pastor recalled how, while doing dishes at the sink, his mother sang songs of praise. Now passed on, perhaps she is singing songs of praise now in glory. We will benefit in every way if we can do this ourselves, worship all the time through song. Let’s remember this during our week.
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. It starts a little later as we had difficulty with our camera at the start of the service. 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.