We will be gathering for worship at 11 am and 6 pm this Sunday. I'm attaching this week's bulletin. For those who stream our services, you can find the livestream at http://tinysa.com/live/spartarpc. If you would find a digital presentation of our Psalms with tunes and recordings, take a look at psalter.org. An annual subscription is $9 and gives you access to both of our psalters with singing helps and recordings as they are available. It works well on PC and smartphone. I've also attached the bulletin for this Lord's Day to this email.
The Synod's Vital Churches committee is sending two men to visit our congregation next week. Their goal is to help us think about growing as as a healthy and effective congregation. They will be getting in Saturday afternoon and leaving on Monday.
We have a new church website! You can find it at www.sparta-rp-church.com. It is tightly connected to our SermonAudio feed, but also has the details of when and where we meet. I would like a few more photos to fill it out, so if you have a good photo of our area or something that has to do with our church, I might be able to use it in one place.
In our morning preaching we will be thinking about Jonathan's boldness as a military leader of Israel's army. As we look at the contrast between Jonathan and his father, Saul, we see that Jonathan's confidence comes from a confidence that he enjoys God's favor and that God will do good for his people. While our lack of boldness can come from many sources, we should consider if sometimes we fail to be bold when we ought to be because we are not confident that God looks upon us in favor. The remedy for this condition is to return to Christ Jesus. Jesus, died and risen for you is a sure proof that God looks on you in favor. And if we have God's favor, we can afford to be bold for his people and his priorities.
-Ross
