Sunday April 22,2012 ” Why me Lord “

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What a great day at church on Sunday.  I really enjoyed Sunday School and I was challenged by Larry to live what we preach.  How important it is to be honest with others, with yourself and with God.  We missed Frances during the Praise part of the service but we made it through.  What made this day so special was the baptism of our sister in Christ Jana.  She had accepted Christ earlier but she wanted to be baptized to follow the example of Christ.  What a thrill for me to be part in the baptism.

This week was the week for Joel and Dana to be with us, however he is going to have to travel this week so he will not be able to be here this month so I guess you will just have to put up with me this week.  I was thinking about a sermon for this week and I was reading scripture in Acts the 3rd chapter and I ask myself why did God pick the Jews to be his people? Look how they turned on him. Look how they did not understand him and even today they are still looking for the Messiah.  The scripture for this week is going to be Acts the 3rd Chapter verse 11 thru 19 but to get the background to these verses you need to start at verse 1.  When I ask God why do you choose the Jews his answer to me is why did I choose you?  We are going to look at this scripture and see how it applies to us everyday.  I hope you will be in Church and invite someone to come with you.  Lets share what we have.

Please continue to pray for those that are hurting.  I hope you are having a great week and I hope you are putting God at the top of your priority list and I hope to see you on Sunday.  Do great things for God sake and expect a blessing.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for April 15 – Honestly!

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Hello family and friends.  I hope this finds you all well, rejoicing in the goodness of our Lord after our Resurrection Day celebration last Sunday.  A big thank you to all of those inside and outside the church who helped make it happen.

Since we’ll be meeting next Sunday on what would be tax day, I thought it would be a good time to talk about integrity.  I don’t know what your experience has been, but I have found that if someone feels the need to tell you that they’re honest you should be on your guard.  An expectation of integrity seems to be woven into our being.  Yes, we’re all born in sin and lying comes naturally, yet we have to learn mistrust.  We expect that others are telling the truth until we discover that sometimes they don’t.  We just know there’s something wrong with that, at least when someone else does it.

Whether you grew up in a Christian family or not, you were probably taught that lying is bad.  In time you also learned that maybe sometimes it was not so bad.  Maybe sometimes it’s even good.  Is that so?  Are there circumstances where being less than completely honest in word or deed is acceptable and even right, or might Jesus be calling us to a higher standard?  How do we handle those situations in life that seem to demand that we stray from truth?  Is honesty only about what we say?

This Sunday I would like to show you how the concept of integrity is woven throughout the scripture from beginning to end, but we can get a clear picture of how Jesus would answer our questions just by looking at what He said.  First, He says that He is the truth in John 14:6.  If He embodies truth, then following Him requires pursuit of truth.  Emulating Him means practicing truthfulness.

He also told us where lies come from.  He says of Satan in John 8:44, “…He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him.  Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Come and join us this Sunday as we explore how to live our lives with integrity.  I’m looking forward to it.  Honestly!

 

Sunday April 8 2012 ” Crying at the tomb “

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I hope all of you are O.K. after all the hurricane activity on Tuesday. I can’t remember when there was so much activity all over the city, not just one area.  Millions of dollars in damage but no deaths.  That is amazing. As I watched the coverage on the news it reminds me what an uncertain world we live in. Please be praying for the injured and those that lost property.

One thing is certain we had a great time Sunday at BBT.  I want to thank Linda and Pam for the recap on the series “Not a Fan”. I hope we can have more testimony of how we have become a better follower of Christ. This week is Easter.  What a celebration we will have on Sunday.  Pris will bring the Sunday school lesson and I am going to bring a message about what Mary Magdalene and two of the disciples did when they found the stone rolled away from the tomb.  The scripture verse this week will be found in the Gospel of John the 20Th chapter vs 1-18.  I want us to see how they reacted when they found the tomb empty.  Were they excited? Or were they disturbed?  Did they run and tell the others or did they just go about their business?  I want us to see what it meant to these few people and how they handled the news Jesus was no longer in the tomb.  We know what it means for us today. It is the reason we are celebrating on Sunday.  Were they celebrating?  Had not Jesus told them this is exactly what was going to happen? I hope you will join us in Church on this Easter Sunday and I hope you will invite someone to come along with you.  After the service we will have Easter dinner in the fellowship hall and we have Easter baskets for every family.  What a great time for fellowship and worship at BBT.

Have you heard from God lately?  I hope you are putting into practice the art of listing to God and obeying his instructions.  Keep reading the Word, keep praying for those that are hurting and help those you can.  God can make you a blessing to someone if you will let him and in return maybe someone will be a blessing to you.  You will be blessed if you are a blessing.  Do good things in the name of the Lord and we can’t wait to see you to celebrate the resurrection on Sunday!!  Know you are loved.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday April 1, 2012 “After the Parade”

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What a great day we had in Church last week.  We had a great time of sharing and receiving in Sunday school and I enjoyed sharing with you about how we can hear God.  We missed those who were not able to be there but I am excited about the upcoming service this week.

We missed Joel and Dana last week but they will be back in April.  Also in April I have friend that is a youth pastor at Freeman Heights Baptist Church who wants to come and bring his youth group to minister to us one week in April.  I have not confirmed yet with pastor Will Gibson but I know he is anxious to let his youth get out in the mission field and start doing good things for God.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday as well as April Fools, the national holiday for Atheist. Sorry I could not resist it.  This Week I am going to be talking about the time leading up to the crucifixion.  The scripture verse this week is Found in Mark 11: 1-11.  I am going to talk about the Commitment, the Courage, and the Compassion in Jesus as he prepares to suffer and die for you and me.  I am amazed at how Jesus loved me so much that he would lay down his life for me.  I am so unworthy but I am also so grateful.  I hope you have the same emotions.  Please make plans for being in church Sunday and invite someone to come with you.

I hope you have practiced at hearing God this week.  I hope you will be able to share something you heard from God this week.  I will get the prayer list posted this week and I hope if you have something you want us to pray about you will call me.  My family needs your prayers this week as we are struggling with a problem in our close family.  I am afraid this could really put a barrier up in our family and we really need your prayers.  Larry and Linda also need our prayers in their family as well. Please keep believing in this ministry and what God has for you and be prepared to go where he sends you to go.  You will be blessed.  We love you and can’t wait to see you in Church on Sunday

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday March 25th 2012 ” Is that thunder I hear?”

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It is so good to be back home in Texas.  We had a great trip but only I can get caught in the desert in a snow storm.  I missed being with you but it was nice to travel with our friends. I hope you enjoyed Church and I am anxious to hear the last lesson on discipleship and the sermon Larry brought.

We were suppose to have Joel and his group with us Sunday but they are involved in their Church this week, so you will have to put up with me again.  Easter is just a week away. Leading up to that I looked at the week of the celebration of Passover leading up to the Crucifixion of Christ.  The scripture is the gospel of John chapter 12 vs 20-33.  We are going to talk about hearing God.  As a disciple we must be able to hear God and act on his direction, as Larry talked about last week, there will be a lot of people who think they are doing what is required of them but are they really.  Can you hear God or do you just hear the thunder?  I want us to be Gods people following Gods direction.  We can not do that if all we do is go through the motions of being a disciple.  We need to hear from God.  I hope you will be in church Sunday and celebrate Passover with us as we celebrate the Lord’s supper.

Thank you so much for praying for us last week. As I was sitting in my room Sunday afternoon I really felt your prayers, as I knew you were meeting together in worship.  I feel so fortunate to be a part of this ministry.  I hope you feel the same.  I want to thank all of you for what you mean to my family.  Ruth did not get to go out of town this week.  I know she miss the chance to visit her family but she says she will get to go around Thanksgiving but I am thankful she will be in Church on Sunday. Want to hear God this week? If someones name comes to you this week and you feel like this person needs something, act on it, call them, go by and see them just don’t ignore the opportunity to minister to them as God has chosen you to minister to that person.  Keep praying for those that are sick and hurting and invite someone to come to church with you on Sunday!!  We will see you then.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for March 18 – Get Real

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21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ 23 “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’”  (Matt 7:21-23)

I don’t know about you, but when I read that, I can’t help feeling just a little uncomfortable.  After all, don’t’ the people Jesus is talking about here sound like pretty amazing Christians?  How many people do you know who go around casting out demons and performing miracles in the name of Jesus?  How many of them are sane?  Don’t misunderstand me.  Jesus gave us the power to do those things when they fall within His plan, but I don’t think He has much to do with some of the things we see.

Yet it would seem these folks are really committed.  If Jesus would say to them, “I never knew you,” what would He say to me?  Never mind the showy stuff.  I wonder if I even get the basics right.  Do I pray enough?  Do I study the Bible enough?  How many have I helped to come to Jesus?

I’m so thankful that He is love.  He needs all those attributes that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 13 just to put up with me.  The amazing thing is that He doesn’t see it that way.  He doesn’t have to try to love us.  That is who He is.

We’re wrapping up a six week study designed to help us move from being merely fans of Jesus to being true followers.   I hope we have come to see that it means we will have to make some changes in our lives.  Why?  It’s not because we didn’t’ check off all the to-dos in our holy day planner.  It’s not that we missed church last Sunday or didn’t put anything in the offering plate.  It’s that we haven’t paid enough attention to what He really wants.  He may want us to do those other things, but He wants our love first.

When we love someone, we do everything we can to please them.  We don’t do it because we’re afraid of what will happen if we don’t.  We do it because it brings us joy to make them happy.  We sacrifice willingly, and their pleasure is our reward.  Jesus loved us so much that He gave His life for us.  Are we willing to love Him back that much?  It’s a choice we will have to make every day of our lives.

I hope you will join us as we wrap up our study.  Even if you haven’t been able to come for the last few weeks, I know that God has a message just for you this Sunday.  See you there!

 

Sunday March 11th, 2012 ” Responsible Living “

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It was a great day at BBT on Sunday.  There were a few members back that had been out for a while.  It was nice to have such a good group in church on Sunday.  I am hoping for even more this week.  Linda brought the Sunday school lesson on Discipleship; this was lesson number 4 of 6.  She will finish up over the next 2 weeks and I hope you have enjoyed these classes as much as I have.  I cant wait to be back this week.

This week I am going back to the Old Testament, way back to Exodus 20 chapter verses 1-17.  This sermon is about how to live responsibly.  This is where God gave us our instruction on how. We may be under a new convenient but we still must be responsible people.  What does that mean? Why is it so hard to act responsibly some times?  What is our responsibility to be a follower of Christ?  Are we shirking our responsibility when it comes to do good things? Are we doing going things for the right reason?  I challenge you every week to do good things but what am I talking about? Do we place blame on others so not to take responsibility ourselves?  WOW there are a lot of questions that need to be asked, hopefully we will have some answers on Sunday.  Please be in Church Sunday and help me answer some of these questions.

Cindy got a good report from the doctor on Monday and she has another appointment next week.  Little Cindy is having her Surgery today and is to get to come home tomorrow if all goes well.  Lets pray it does.  Priss and me are going on vacation leaving Thursday the 15Th and Larry will have the service on the 18Th.  Please pray for us as we travel and we will see you back on the 25Th.  Keep praying for the renovations that we are beginning on the Church this week.  Pray for the ones in our congregation that are hurting and need our help. Hopefully Linda will have a less traumatic week this week and pray for her as she and Larry help in leading us in our ability to be better followers of Christ.  Keep doing good things, inviting others to come and visit us and pray for each other.  We will see you on Sunday.  We love you very much!

Pastor David & Priss

 

Sunday March 4, 2012 ” Do you know your place?”

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I really did enjoy being in Church at BBT last week.  Joel brought his students to come and minister to us and his close friend Regina Rogers brought us a great message on Hope.  How many of the people we meet each day could use some of the Hope God gives.  In our study on discipleship I believe one of the great things we can do is to give that Hope to the ones we meet each day.  I love the Music and the message and I hope you were there to hear both.

This week my message is about  “Do you know your place?” we don’t like to think that we need to be put in our place but the fact of the matter is quite often we do.  The scripture verse I am going to use is Mark 8: 31-33.  In this scripture even the great disciple Peter forgot his place when speaking to Jesus.  We need to understand as FOLLOWERS of Christ our position is not to lead but to follow.  That is hard for many of us especially a pastor who thinks he is suppose to be “large and in charge”.  I hope you will be in church Sunday to see where is our place?

Let me remind you to call someone this week and invite them to Church Sunday.  We have a lot to offer and I can’t believe there are not people out there that are looking to find a place where they will be accepted just as they are.  Our goal is to be a follower of what Christ did while here on earth and He never rejected anyone because they were not good enough or smart enough or too young or too old.  The only ones he turned away were the ones that felt they needed no help.  We ALL need help and Christ gives us that Hope we talked about last week.  Pray for those that are hurting, rejoice with those that have been blessed and be in Church Sunday as we worship together again.  We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday.

Pastor David & Pris

 

Sunday February 26th

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I am so grateful for all your prayers this week.  I hated not being in church Sunday but I appreciate that you were praying and thinking about me.  Your prayers have been answered and I feel much much better!  Thank you Don for driving the bus for me last week. I talked with Larry and he said the service went well but he forgot to turn on the recorder to tape his message.  I am sorry I missed out on hearing what God had given him.

This week Joel and Dana and his group will be back with us.  I can’t wait to see what God has for us through his messengers.  I hope you will invite someone to come with you on Sunday and we can share what Christ has for us.  Part of being a good disciple is answering the call when we are called.  It is so much easier for me to hear God and feel him when I know I am right where I am suppose to be.  My place Sunday will be at 6929 Day street in the house that God built and sustained for over 53 years.  God has a word for me and I am excited about receiving it.  He has a message for you as well so do not let ANYTHING stop you from being at BBT on Sunday.

I heard from La Trish last week and I was hoping she would get to be in church last week but I could not get back with her.  She is doing well and has moved closer to the church so I hope she will be in church this Sunday.  If she is there please tell her how much we have missed her and how glad we are to see her again, everyone needs to know they have been missed.  I will see you on Sunday, Lord willing, so you plan on being there too.  Keep doing good things in God’s name and remember we love you.  See you in CHURCH!!!

Pastor David & Pris

 

Message for February 18 – What Must I Do?

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Hello church family and friends.  I hope you have had a good week, growing closer to the Lord and learning how to live as He has called us to live.  Life has its challenges for all of us, but we know Him who overcomes.

This week I have the privilege of speaking to you about the story of the “rich young ruler.”  This man’s encounter with Jesus is the foundation for our Sunday School lesson, and there are some other interesting things about this story that I would like to explore with you.  It is found in Matthew 19:16-30, Mark 10:17-31, and Luke 18:18-30.  Each account reveals something new, so though we won’t have time to read them all in whole tomorrow, I suggest you do so in your private study time.

We’ve all been taught that we receive eternal life by making Jesus lord of our lives, or at least that’s what we should have been taught.  We have a nice little formula and prayer to get started, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  We learned one way to share it with others this summer and I hope everyone has been able to put it into practice.

If that’s the way to eternal life, why didn’t Jesus give that answer here?  If we’re all equal in His sight, why did He make a point of saying how hard it is for a rich man to enter his kingdom?  Even his disciples were amazed that he would say that.  If we study this story a little more closely, what else might we learn?  Come and see!