Teague Bible Church

This Sunday, 10/29/17, 10:45 a.m., we will teach about a bad kind of fear and a good kind of fear. All “fears” are not the same. The context in which that fear comes determines if it is a healing fear or a fear that stops our lives and keeps them in misery. Safe to say, many people are ruled by the fear of the “What ifs.” We might say, “What if this happens; what will I do then?” We might say, ” What if I am mistaken about the plans I have made?” We might say, ” What if I am wrong about God?”
The word “fear,” or its derivatives, are used about 400 times in the Scripture. So you are not alone if the reality of fear plays a role in your life. The question is; will it change the course of your life to an extent that you miss the life you should have lived?
I will leave you with an example of a good kind of fear. My first pastorate was in the Pacific Northwest. My boys were about 7 and 5, respectively, when a day came I thought I might lose one of them. Church had let out and the kids were in the church yard. The main, busy road was about 40 yards away.
But the 5 year old had somehow gotten 10 yards away from the main road. The 7 year old was 20 yards back from that, where he was supposed to be. I came out and spotted the older, nearer, 7 year old, but then was taken aback by the 5 year old’s position.
I did not have time to run and catch the 5 year old before he got in the road. I knew someone nearer who could. I yelled as loud and as firm as I could to the 7 year old : ” T____run and tackle your brother before the cars hit him!” To the 5 year old I yelled, “G____ Stop right now, do it!”
It seemed like the whole world stopped for me at that moment. What was I helpless to do with my body; I did with a history of my voice. That history of my voice,running through their young minds was something like this: ” Dad is very loving, will spend as much time playing as you want him to, but dad is nobody to trifle with! He means what he says an instantly follows through. He keeps his promises, the good ones and the ones that are not so pleasant for us. If he said it, then I had better do it!”
I did what I did out of love. If I had been a doting, wimpy parent, or a mean and selfish parent, for both reasons they would not have listened to me, or they may have hesitated to ask questions of me before obeying my voice. If that happened it would have been too late. A good fear instilled in them, because of the history of my voice, may have saved the 5 year old that day.
Sin has a blinding effect on all of us. It causes us not to fear the things we should; and fear a multitude of things we shouldn’t. Some “fears” are good; many are bad. Please sacrifice to be with us and find out which is which. Come for the sake of your own freedom from your enemies’ fear tactics.
So what happened to the 5 and 7 year old? Now this is funny. Well, at least me and the boys still think so. Mom? Not so much. So don’t tell her about this article.
G___ , the 5 year old, stopped in his tracks instantly and started crying, because my voice scared him. About 8 seconds later came the tackle of the little brother by big brother. That tackle knocked the air out of the little one. The 7 year old is holding the 5 year old on the ground. He was thrilled he got to do something he never got to do before without getting in trouble. The 7 year old say,” Got him dad, should I hit him now?” I said, “Absolutely not, just hold him till I get there.” As I approached the scene, the little one way swinging upward trying to hit the older one. He had not figured out the older one had saved him. The older one was laughing, telling me the little one has such short arms! Right there with me, as always, in such times it seemed, was a man who loved me soul-deep, who also had two boys. He said, “I love your boys, just like I love my two boys.” Good day at church; yep, good day at church.
JWP 10/27/17

DO THE BEST YOU CAN
“All you can do, is do the best you can.” I liked hearing that as a kid. It always made me feel good. As an adult I started asking, ” What if my best is not good enough?” To my surprise I realized I no longer felt good by just doing my best. I though that perhaps there may be another way to approach life than the approach I had maintained. At 19 I found that way.
I would not think much of a person, of course, who was not trying to do their best. Someone who was lazy and passive. Someone who always had a ready excuse for failure.
But as I walk with Christ now, I realize that the Christian life begins each day with a surrender. I start with Romans 12: 1-2. I start by admitting that the day will be largely a loss if I just “do my best.” Instead the day begins with, ” I cannot do this, You must do this through me or nothing good will come from it. I surrender. I yield to your plan for my life today. My best will not be good enough.”
If the day is left to my self-confidence and a “give it your best” attitude then it will end with disappointment. I can always think of more that can be done, and a better quality of doing to boot. I can always see someone doing it better. I am just wise enough to stop feeling any goodness coming from feeling like I did it better than some, or even most others. It is that comparison to others that puts me on the emotion roller-coaster that wears me out each day. Pride or self-condemnation; here we go again!
Christ has given me a new nature. When I live out of that new nature it is now, “His best” that ends the day. The hard part is the surrender, not the doing of the good we are called to do. Once the daily surrender takes place then things “flow” better.
A couple of scripture puts this paradox in perspective. About the time you feel that doing your best is not enough, the Word of God puts the final nail on the coffin of trying to please God out of the failing resources of the old nature. As you begin to feel a kind of death lay over “your best” when you read Matthew 10:38-39 then you feel this incredible relief as you read Matthew 11:28-29. A way to please God with a new heart is described; a less troubled way. Days end in peace instead of frustration and heartache.
So these two scriptures come to mind. They seem contradictory. Did the author did not know they were only several verses apart? He knew. And it is the open secret of the Word.
Matthew 10: 38-39 ” And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” Luke 9:23 adds that wonderful line here of, (“he must deny himself.”)
Soon after these impossible- sounding verses in Matthew 10: 38-39 we have the paradox verses coming in Matthew 11: 28-30. A passage to be appropriated after you have exhausted your attempt to do, “Your best” from your old nature, your old self-life. Until your are weary enough you may never understand these next verses.
” Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke ( this word has much in common with the word for “cross,” ) upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11: 28-29.
So you have a lot to do today. How do you think you will feel at the end of the day? How do you want to feel at the end of the day? You will be tired for sure, but it could be a good kind of tired; a peaceful, fulfilling kind of tired, or it could be that feeling that has been gnawing on your soul for years which says, ” I feel like I am drowning, and again, as before, my best was not good enough!” You can choose you know. JWP

I John 3 18 through 24 10 8 17

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

I JOHN 3 11 through 17 DATE 10 1 17

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

I John 3 4 through 10 9 24 17

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

On October 3rd at 6pm, the SPT Men’s Group will discuss why we believe in the things that shape our lives and our actions. From “common sense” to the Gospel, everything is on the table. Join us at TBC this Tuesday.

Many thanks to Jimmy Petty for inspiring this topic. Read the article he shared here….

Why Accept the Pythagorean Theorem RICHARD DAWKINS

All of us have been in situations where we planned certain things, thought we had enough supplies, or gumption, or grit to accomplish a goal and came up short. Many times we get a do-over, or there is a next time, to try again.
I remember as a kid, hearing the standard reply to a failure. It was something like, “Well, you gave it your best.” As an adult I wondered, ” What if my best is not good enough?” And as all grown-ups know, many times our best is not good enough.
Life was not meant to be lived in your own strength. In Romans 7 we see the agony of a man who, as far as anybody knew, was excelling in doing things right. A man who gave his best, and it sure look like what he did was enough to be what a man is supposed to be.
This passage is the agony of a lost religious man. Better than all those around him, yet, in his heart ,he knew his best was not good enough. He knew he was always full of sin. He knew he was really empty inside. Those moments alone tormented him.
In John 6 Jesus had fed the 5000. Some thought that now they had a free meal ticket from then on. Others thought if they gave it their best, and Jesus would just teach them how, they could do the works that He did. John 6: 27-29 says, ” Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of man will give you, for on Him the Father, God, has set His seal.” Therefore they said to Him, ” What shall we do, so that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, ” This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.”
There is a searching and seeking we go through to be saved, which is caused by God as He draws us to Himself, but our efforts lead up to a moment where we say, ” I cannot do this. My best will not be good enough.”
He wants us to pursue eternal life by coming to Him, with nothing but failure to show Him. Then He does an amazing thing; He just gives us eternal life for free”. He says the main “work” is to believe. To believe what? It means to trust your life to Him.
It means He did something for you that you could not do for yourself. It means to continue to trust Him with every part of your life. It means being in a relationship of love and trust daily with Him which is higher, and beyond all other people and things. Will you do good things after you meet Jesus? Of course you will. You will do so because you are saved, not to get saved.
Did Paul ever come to the place where he knew that what he did would be enough? Yes. He simply had to believe what Jesus had already done for Him on the cross. He had a new life “given” to him. He knew his best was not good enough.
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life, which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith (I trust that what Jesus did on the cross would be good enough to save me forever) in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.”
So take a deep breath. Paul was set free and poured his life out to get this message to us. As Lewis said of Jesus, ” To trust Him of course means trying to do all that He says. There would be no sense in saying you trusted a person if you did not take his advice. Thus, if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him, but trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing things in order to get saved, but because He has begun to save you already. Not hoping to get to heaven as a reward for your actions, but inevitably wanting to act in a certain way because a first gleam of heaven is already inside you.” JWP

This week, Sharp Pointy Things (the TBC Men’s Discussion Group) will look into what is to be a man in today’s world. Men are getting a lot of conflicting messages. What role models has God given us through history to show men how we are to be? Join us Tuesday night at 6pm and bring your ideas of manhood…..and any interesting sharp, pointy things!

IF

Please join us in today’s word. And let us know what you think….either in our comment section or in person at our next service. Join us every Sunday at our new worship times–9:30am for Sunday School and at 10:45am for Worship Service. We’d love to see you here!

Nancy P will cover Nursery that Sunday.