Bible Verse for Sunday Service September 8, 2024
Luke 9:11
When the crowds learned it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them of the kingdom of God and cured those who had need of healing.
Isaiah 43:1
But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.
Announcements:
Awana begins on September 11. We look forward to having groups from preschool (2 years before kindergarten) through 6th grade, and maybe teens. We will meet every Wednesday night, except holidays from 6:30 to 8:00 PM. We look forward to a great year.
Ladies Bible study will restart on September 10, meeting at the church every Tuesday at 10AM. Thank you Sandy Schlosser for leading this important time of Bible study and prayer.
At the upcoming deacon’s meeting on October 3, they will consider the kitchen remodeling project. If you have an idea about that project, you are invited to submit feedback so we can put together the best proposal. Phil Witschi has put together some drawings that are on the foyer table. Thank you Phil.
Shepherd Bible Church Special September 8, 24 “I Love You this Much”
We were blessed by Jimmy Sutton singing “I Love You this Much.” This song was written by Jimmy Wayne in 2002. His song was inspired by his relationship with his father. Jimmy Sutton sang an arrangement of the song made popular by the Whisnants. We all enjoyed Jimmy’s performance of this encouraging song. You can see this performance on Rumble, or below.
Sermon:
Pastor Jim spoke to us on Psalm 126 in a sermon he titled “A Pioneering Spirit.” While the psalm is one of joy in the Lord for engineering the return of the Jewish exiles to Israel, Pastor connected it to the experience of his family, pioneers. He told of speaking with his grandmother who was pictured in a photograph taken with her a pioneer with her family on the Oregon Trail. Her family settled in Nebraska, homesteaded. Pastor spoke on three principles that he could extract from this psalm in a pioneering spirit.
Firstly, in it he sees praise for what God has done. We should always look back to rejoice in Our Lord’s accomplishments. He realizes hopes, hope for a return to Israel here. For 70 years, the Jews had prayed to return. With their hopes realized, they expressed their joy in what the noticed, saw and remembered.
But, besides seeing what God has done, we must remember, like the returning exiles, to continue to pray for what God has yet to do. Such prayer involves dependence on God, but it also involves a hopeful anticipation of God’s ability to answer prayer, and track record of doing it. Pastor’s message to us, keep trusting in Him.
Pastor also saw perseverance in what we are to to. We must continue, keep going in the field that God assigned you to. And, we must care about our work. Using the agricultural analogy, perhaps we are sowing in tears as we work, but with God, we will be reaping in joy. With our work of reaping in joy we will celebrate as a result.
To conclude, Pastor reminded us that all God’s word is the same in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament. Galatians includes the admonition that “let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Words to live by. Let’s take them to heart.
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.