Sunday September 12,2010

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Good afternoon faithful followers of BBT. We had a great time praising God last week and we are excite about this coming week. We will be celebrating our 52ND year in ministering as Bartimaeus Baptist Temple. We will start the celebration at 10:00 am on Sunday, which is very early for us. This is the only time of the year that we meet this early.  I am excited about this years Homecoming because there will be many visitors and old friends that will be worshiping with us. Pastor Jay Gibson will once again bring the message on Sunday and Pris will lead us in our Sunday School time. Don Potts will lead us in our praise and worship and I know there will be several specials on Sunday as well. After the service we will fellowship with one another in the dinning room over Baker’s Rib Barbeque.  I hope you are planning to be at Church on Sunday and inviting someone to come with you.  I expect this may be the best homecoming ever! Bring your camera and take Lot’s of pictures.

We really had a scare this week with the Tornado’s that hit all over the city.  I hope you were safe. We were very lucky that there wasn’t many more people hurt or killed and much more property destroyed. IT is just another example that nothing is promised to us and we need to make the most out of every moment we have. Lets pray for those that were effected but the storm. Be sure to keep Mike in your prayers as well as he contends to battle his cancer. Our pray is that he will recover from this as good as new. Be sure and read the pray request from last week posted in the Prayer room and if you have a special request please call me and we will get the pray chain going.

I am excited to see you this week and I am expecting God to really do something for you and your family this week. You make sure you are passing on those good things to others. Come Sunday and be a part of our 52ND birthday and helps make this the BEST Homecoming so far. We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday!

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday September 5, 2010

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Good afternoon faithful BBT members.  We had a great service last week.  It was good to see Kay, Annette, and Richard again.  Also we had Mary who was visiting for the first time.  She lives in Brentwood and wants to start coming every week.  Pris gave a emotional lesson on how we such treat each other and the sermon was entitled how to have a successful life.  I believe God has a plan for each and every one of us and he wants us to be successful in every thing we do.  We just need to do our part.

This week I want to talked to us about 2ND chances.  The scripture versus are found in Philmon the 1st chapter.  Take time this week and read the book of Philmon, it wont take you over 30 minuets but it has a terrific story about Paul writing to his good friend Philmon and a man named Onesimus.  I think there is really a great lesson for us in these Scripture.

Homecoming is right around the corner and I am so excited about celebrating our 52 year at BBT.  Jay Gibson will bring the message and I believe Jerry  Gibson may even sing that week as well.  I hope all of your are making plans to be there on the 12Th but I also hope you will be at church this week as we celebrate another great week our Lord has given us.  Be sure and check the Prayer room for our prayer request and there is not a recodered message this week as Larry and Linda were out of town last week.  We love you and cant wait to see you again.  Keep doing good things and we will see you on Sunday

Pastor David & Pris

August 29, 2010

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Hello faithful followers of BBT.  We had a great service last week and I am looking for another great service this week.  Larry did an awesome job on speaking to us about learning a joyous life and Pris did a great job in teaching our Sunday School.  Church is different every week and I love it.

This week I am going to me talking about the road to success.  The scripture is found in Hebrews 13:1-8.  I believe we can all be successful if we follow the right formula and I believe it is found in these versus.

I am looking forward to see all of you on Church on Sunday.  Lets make this a weekly thing.  Keep praying for those that need our help and keep doing good things.  We will see you on Sunday.  We Love you.

Pastor David and Pris

Message for August 22 – The Choice To Rejoice

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Again I want to thank Pastor David for the opportunity to share with you.  It was good to see so many at church last Sunday.  I hope you’ll all be back and bring some more with you.  That’s what we’re supposed to be about.  I think the Lord must be trying to tell us something since He gave me this message a week before Pastor David preached on a similar theme.  Philippians 4:4 says, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!”  If the Lord, through Paul’s letter, is telling us to rejoice, then it must be something we can choose to do.  Remember what we learned about the importance of things that get repeated in the Bible.  Paul obviously considered this important because he said it twice.  This Sunday we will look at what joy is, why we should rejoice, and some practical things to help us do it.  I call them the four R’s of rejoicing.  It will bring me great joy to see you there!

Sunday August 15th 2010

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Good afternoon blessed followers of BBT.  I hope you had a great week and are looking forward to a great weekend.  We had very few in Church on Sunday but for the ones that were there I hope you received something from the fellowship together.  I hope we will have a good group this week but one person that never fails to show up is the Holy Spirit.  Come meet him this week at BBT.

This week’s lesson is about learning to have fun as Christians.  Those two words are usually not used together but I am telling you they should be.  Jesus set an example and even though there is a lot to be done, we can have a great time doing it.  The scripture lesson for this week, and I promise this is right, is Matthew 11:28.  We had this same scripture last week in Sunday School and it really fits with the message for this week.  I hope you will read this verse and be here on Sunday to talk about it.  Priscilla will be teaching Sunday School again so I hope you will make plans to join us on Sunday.

Please remember the prayer request spoken last week and make them a part of your daily prayers.  I am so proud of what we are accomplishing at this church and I am proud we are all part of it.  Relax this week have some fun, do good things and show people what it really means to be a Christian.  We will see you on Sunday.  We love you.

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday August 8 2010

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What a terrific time we had last week.  Many of Larry’s family and friends were
at the Ordination service for Larry. We celebrated a great time with Larry and Linda as Larry became the first ordained minister sponsored by Bartimaeus
Baptist Temple. It was exciting and the fellowship afterwards was great as well.  Larry will be serving as the Associate pastor for Bartimaeus and will be preaching at least once a month.  I encourage all of you to support Larry and Linda as you support me and Pris.

I am going to preach the sermon I was going to preach two weeks ago when I was unable to be at church.  It is found in Luke the 11Th Chapter vs 1-13. These versus should remind us what a great responsibility we have as Christians and how important it is to have our priorities in order.  I hope to have as many in Church this week as we did last week.  That means we will need EVERYBODY there because we wont have Larry’s family to help fill the church this week.

I pray that you will have a great week this week and that you will make the most out of every opportunity you are given.  Keep working hard, keep loving your family and friends and keep do good things for God.  Remember the prayer requests that are listed in the prayer room and if you need to speak to someone call me are Larry and let us pray with you.  May god bless you and keep you safe and we will see you on Sunday, same time and the same place.

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday August 1, 2010

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I really appreciate all the prayers and phone calls this week.  I am doing so much better and I know it is because you cared so much.  I hate we did not get to have Church on Sunday and I feel responsible for that.  Hopefully in the future I will not have to call off Church simply because I can not make it.  Lets make up for it this week by having a great turnout and celebrating the calling of a new servant of God.

This Sunday will be the Ordination of Larry Thacker.  When I say a new servant of God that is misleading.  Larry and Linda have been very active in God’s work for many years, Larry is just going to make it official on Sunday.  After the service on Sunday we will have a greeting for Larry and Linda in the fellowship hall.  This is a big step for the Thacker”s as well as for Bartimaeus.  This will be the first service like this in our church history that I can remember.  It is an exciting event that will start the ministry of a new young minister and we will be a big part of it.  I will ask Larry to act as the associate pastor until he is called to pastor a church of his own.  He will be able to minister to us as we minister to him.  I am excited about the future and what it holds for Larry & Linda.  At the service this week you will have a chance to ask Larry questions as well as give him any advise you may have for him.
I hope you will make plans to be at this historical event on Sunday and help us celebrate the life changing decision that Larry and Linda are making. Remember to keep doing good things and let God show you how much he loves you.  We love you and can’t wait to see you on Sunday!

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday July 25th 2010

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Last sunday at BBT we really had the chance to minister to one another.  We prayed for healing of physical problems we prayed for problems in relationships and we celebrated the fact that God really cares about all of that.  It was really nice to see Ruth’s Sister Mary Ellen with us as she had really been struggling with some health issues, but she really is doing much much better.  We also had two visitors that were invited to Church by Larry and Linda and Glen and Sandy.  I hope they enjoyed the worship service as much as I did.  We also had Sandra Hart joined the church and will be baptized in near future. What a terrific addition she will make to our Family. It was a great day full of blessings and promises and it was really a great way to start the week.

This week’s message is found in Mark the 9Th Chapter Vs 38-41.  Just as we talked about last week the importance of having our priorities straight, we carry on with that thought this week we we decide what good is our Faith if we are no diffrent then our next door neighbor?  I want us to see that we are not just Christians in name but we are Christians by choice and we have a responsibility to make that mean something.  It is not enough to just call ourselves Christians we have to act like it.  Our greatest witness many times is not something we say it is how we act and how we react to the people who are watching us.  And whether you realize it or not there is someone watching you to see if you really are who you say you are.  This week’s sermon is going to show it is not the big things in life that will define us but the small almost forgetable things that really determine who we are.  Read the scripture this week and ask yourself.  We made have found Favor with the world but have we lost our Flavor?

I hope to see you on Sunday.  I expect great things are going to happen so be there so you can be a part of what God is doing in this ministry.  keep doing good things, pray for those that need our prayers and keep looking up for our redemption draweth nigh.  We love you and cant wait to see you again.

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday July 18th, 2010

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Well goodafternoon or goodmorning or goodevening depending on when you are reading this.  I hope you are having a great day at whatever time it is.  I am so excited  today and I really don’t know why.  It is middle of the week, it is hot outside and the aircondition in my truck is not working.  My Wife is still feeling bad but I just have a feeling God is about to do something really special in my life and I can’t wait to see what it is.  Have you ever felt like this?  You don’t know what is coming but you know it is going to be good.

We really had a great celebration Sunday and we were honored to have Pastor Steve Bidwell preach this week.  He is a fellow Bible study partner with Larry on Thursday morning and it was really great to meet him and have him worship with us.  Attendance was down again this week but I am convinced that God has His anointment on this place and He will contine to bless this ministry as long as we are about his business.  I need you to help me encourage those that have been out lately that we missed them and need them to be an active part of this ministry.

This week I am going to be preaching from Luke the 10Th Chapter  verses 38-42.  This is the story of Jesus coming to the house of Martha and Mary and the problems that arise between these two sisters.  As close as they were, along with their brother Lazarus, this story shows how human we are and how out of place our priorties can become.  I want you to read these verses this week and I want you to try to see things from Martha’s viewpoint.  Jesus corrects her attitude in this story but lets see why she is so like many of us today.  Is there a change we need to make in our priorities?  When I look at how we have placed such a low priority on Worship in this country, I can’t help but believe we are in the mess we are in by our own making.  When it comes to Work, Play and Worship in this society we seem to Worship our Work, Work at our Play, and Play at our Worship.  What we can do to change that? We can start by being like Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus and learn from him.

I hope to see you on Sunday.  Please continue to pray for those who are sick and hurting and lets get excited about what God has planned for us.  Remember his dreams are bigger than our dreams and his ideas are bigger than our ideas. I have a great idea, lets go with his dreams and his ideas and see where they take us.  Hopefully they will take you to Church on Sunday and we can worship the way God intended us to do so.  Do good things for everyone you meet this week and God will have you drinking from your saucer.
We love you and pray that God will contine to bless you and keep you in paths of righteousness till we see each other again.

Pastor David & Pris

Sunday July 11,2010

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Good afternoon followers of BBT.  I hope you had a great 4Th of July weekend.  We celebrated the 4Th on Sunday with the final lesson on reading the Bible in 90 days and I am so grateful that we were introduced to this program through Linda and we appreciate all her hard work in leading us to the end.  We also got to hear the “Senior Moments” as they sang all of those patriotic songs we love to hear.  I hope you will make plans on being at church this week as we have another guest speaker “in the house!”

Pastor Steven Bidwell will be with us this week and he is going to bring a message on Philippians starting in the 1st Chapter.  Pastor Bidwell is a former pastor at Calavery Baptist Church in Cottonwood Texas and is currently working on his Doctry of Minister degree at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Pastor Bidwell is in a bible study group with Larry Thacker and has agreed to preach for us on Sunday.  I hope you will invite someone to come with you and share in the fellowship.  Priscilla is anxious to start teaching Sunday School again and I know God has something for her to share with us.

Please keep praying for those mention in our prayer request.  If you have a special prayer request please call me and I will have Pam get the prayer chain started.  I know it is hot outside but don’t let that stop you from serving our Great and Wonderful God.  He has provided us with a Church that is aircondition and a comfortable place to worship.  I hope you will take advantage of all he has provided for us.  This Saturday the young people, and some not so young, From Heights Church will be at the church working in the flower beds and cleaning out storerooms so don’t be surprised if our church has a new spring look when you come on Sunday.  This is just another example of how great our God is.  We are looking forward to seeing you on Sunday and I hope you are doing good things with the good things God has given you.  May God bless you and keep you and we will see you Sunday!

Pastor David & Pris