CALL TO WORSHIP

(Tune: "Brethren, We Have Met to Worship ," p. 15)

For Thy mercy and Thy grace,

Faithful through another year;

Hear our song of grateful praise;

Father, and Redeemer, hear.

Lo, our sins on Thee we cast,

Thee, our perfect Sacrifice;

And, forgetting all the past,

Press towards our glorious prize.

Dark the future, let Thy light

Guide us, bright and morning star;

Fierce our foes, and hard the fight;

Arm us Savior, for the war.

Keep us faithful, keep us pure,

Keep us evermore Thine own;

Justified in God our Savior,

In Christ‟s righteousness alone.

TODAY'S SPEAKER: Eager Avenue Grace Church extends a warm welcome to Bill Parker. Bill is pastor of Thirteenth Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Ky. He will conduct both the 10:00 am and 11:00 am services today. Pray for him as he delivers God's Word.

Television Broadcast: Our Reign of Grace Television program is being broadcast on WFXL Fox 31, Channel 4. The program will air every Sunday morning at 11 AM. Pray that God will use it for His glory.

Radio Broadcast: Sunday morning at 9:30am on 98.7 FM -WISK. To hear sermons on your computer click on www.americusradio.com

Web Sites: Visit our newly designed web site at: www.rofgrace.com

Also visit us at: www.Sermonaudio.com\reignofgrace

Birthdays: Amy Lee - Jan. 12^th

WHOM SHOULD WE PLEASE?

One of the lines in a popular song of the 1970's stated, ―You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself. We most always go wrong when we try to please everyone, for this is compromise. We also go wrong when we try to please ourselves, for this is selfishness. But we never go wrong when we seek to please God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, for this is obedience and love in faith and in the truth. This obedience is fruit unto God based on and motivated by His sovereign mercy and grace in Christ. It is the obedience of a sinner saved by grace, one who has been freely and eternally forgiven of all sin by the blood of Christ, and one who is freely and eternally justified before God by the righteousness of Christ imputed. We who believe the gospel should strive to please God whether or not it pleases anyone else or even ourselves. We know pleasing God by obedience and love without legalism is good both for ourselves and for everyone else involved.

-- Pastor Bill Parker

The safety of all God's elect rests in Christ and that work of righteousness which He accomplished in His sufferings and death. When we look away from Him, all peace is lost. When we rely upon our feelings for assurance of salvation, all rest of soul ends. When we rely for an instant on what we've done or are doing, conscience can only condemn us. When we think about what we've not done, hope fades away, for even what we've not done becomes the enemy of what He has done! No, it is Christ that died.. It is His blood that God looks to and peace, assurance and joy can only be ours when we look to the One that God has looked to. "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame but WHOLLY lean on Jesus' name."

-- Pastor Gary Shepard

Attending the Contenders

Hosea 2:3-13

Our Savior's last command to his disciples before he ascended to the Father was; "go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the world." (Mathew 28: 19-20)

I see a two-fold purpose connected with this promise of Christ's presence with us.

1. 1. He equips the contender of the faith with the faith. He makes us skillful in the word of righteousness.
2. 2. He enlightens the chosen unto faith by the faith. From objective to subjective faith.

The commandment given to those who would contend for the faith is a grave responsibility. To stand before a people and say; "Thus saith the Lord," is no light matter and is the responsibility of those alone whom he sends. Their qualifications must be measured by the truth they declare concerning Christ' person and his accomplishments.

(2 Corinthians 11:4) "For if he that cometh preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted might well bear with me." James 3:1: "My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation." This follows on the heels of his admonition in James 1:19. "Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak and slow to wrath." For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God." The gospel is offensive. It is powerful. It's a two edged sword. Persuasion (contending) is better than power. Our contending should be motivated by the truth in love, not angry confrontation. We let the word work.

So, we go, 2 Corinthians 4:7, "knowing that we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the Excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

"Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves."(Matthew 10:16) It is not a pleasant thing to stand against anyone, but a necessary thing to stand for the truth to everyone, even to those of our own household as God requires in Hosea 2: 1-2, because Christ warns us that as they hated him, so will they hate those who come in his name with his message.