Following Jesus Son of God …

Good Friday to All,

We are almost through September, beautiful fall weather … but we know what comes next! Enjoy while we can, right?

How could God come up with an agreement, a deal, with us for salvation in which he could guarantee the result? It would have to be based on faith and rest on grace. There could be no rules to keep, no laws to regulate, because we would break them and nullify faith and void the promise.

• THIS PLAN OF GOD’S? HE DOES EVERYTHING!
• OUR PART? BELIEVE GOD!

Message Title: That the Promise May Rest on Grace!

Message Text: Romans 4:13-25

• PDF 10 That the Promise May Rest on Grace : Romans 4:13-25 : FFC : dave : 092114 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 10 That the Promise May Rest on Grace : Romans 4:13-25 : FFC : dave : 092114 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Hello All,

Here is this week’s bulletin.

• PDF Bulletin FFC September 21 2014

No MP3 for the message this week.

Oops! I thought the recorder was malfunctioning, but it was instead operator error. I couldn’t get the recorder to work Sunday morning because the “Hold” button was on and I could get nothing to work. Discovered this Sunday afternoon. Which was good. This was a much better scenario than having to repair or replace a $200 recorder.

My apologies!

Dave

Good Friday Afternoon to You,

Abraham believed God and God put it to his account for righteousness. That is how God can forgive us. Someone had to pay for our sin. Someone had to give us righteousness that would hold up before a holy God. This is our Jesus. Forgiveness comes because a great payment was made. The Apostle Paul here makes this point by tying the discussion of Abraham’s righteousness before God to the blessing of the forgiveness of our sins as he quotes David in Psalm 32:1-2.

• (Psalm 32:1–2 ESV) Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

So one of the questions that I will ask this Sunday is this: “Are we there yet?” Do we understand that if we do not “get” forgiveness, then we do not “get” our salvation.

When we believe God for salvation, as Abraham did, we also have righteousness put to our account, as Abraham did.

By the way, we had righteousness – NOT self-righteousness – put to our account.

🙂 Dave

Message Title: Faith Counted as Righteousness!

Message Text: Romans 4:1-12

•  PDF 9 Faith Counted as Righteousness : Romans 4-1-12 : FFC : dave : 091414 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 9 Faith Counted as Righteousness : Romans 4-1-12 : FFC : dave : 091414 : STUDY SHEET TWO

• MP3: LESSON 8 The Righteousness of God Revealed Apart from the Law / Romans 3:19-31 / 090714

Good Friday Afternoon,

Kerry and I are going to have a pizza party this evening with four teens, one almost teen and their moms. Kerry is so excited. 🙂

After the break for the community service, it will be so good to be back in church this Sunday, and we will continue our study of the Letter to the Romans. I can’t say it enough: “God amazes me every single week with this teaching.”

This is “big words” week. Normally I don’t try to emphasize theological terms but …

• justification
• redemption
• and propitiation

… deserve our full attention. Be prepared to worship as the Holy Spirit of God continues to unwrap the gift of salvation before our very eyes!

Dave

• PDF 8 The Righteousness of God Revealed Apart from the Law : Romans 3-19-31 : FFC : dave scott : 090714 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 8 The Righteousness of God Revealed Apart from the Law : Romans 3-19-31 : FFC : dave scott : 090714 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Message Title: None Righteous, No Not One!

Message Text: Romans 3:1-18

• MP3: LESSON 7 Sunday August 24 2014 None Righteous, No Not One Romans 3-1-18

Hello to All,

We continue through Romans and the Apostle Paul continues to contrast the sinfulness of man with the righteousness of God. This is a good thing. We need to know the true power of our salvation and the depths from which we have been rescued.

There is none righteous, no not one. Not even close. We know that. We sing the songs. We accept the theology.

But I wonder if we do truly believe this. Before Christ we were dead – as in dead – in our trespasses. We were without help, without hope, without God, without Christ.

Sinners at an infinite distance from a holy, righteous God.

But God made a way. Not through anything we could do but he provided his righteousness for our passage into his presence. In Christ we have gone from utter despair and infinite distance from God to an intimacy that is beyond our comprehension.

But to fully taste this goodness of the Lord, we need to know the depths of our sin. So Paul keeps beating the drum. The sinfulness of man and the righteousness of God.

Dave

Message Title: None Righteousness. No, Not One!

Message Text: Romans 3:1-18

• PDF 7 None Righteous, No Not One : Romans 3-1-18 : FFC : dave scott : 082414 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 7 None Righteous, No Not One : Romans 3-1-18 : FFC : dave scott : 082414 : STUDY SHEET TWO

Message Title: Pop Quiz for Guides to the Blind!

Message Text: Romans 2:17-29

MP3: LESSON 6 Sunday August 17 2014 Pop Quiz for Guides to the Blind Romans 2-17-29

Good Friday Evening Everyone,

Time flies when we are having fun, right! NFL preseason starting, SEC football almost here. Late summer and fall can be great. But then winter … Ugh!

Anyway, we continue in Romans and Paul continues to “come after” the established religious folk. We could consider that Paul is merely venting or just enjoys kicking dirt in their face, or we could maybe consider his love for the Jewish people and look at this as softening up their hard, calloused shell so the goodness of God’s truth will penetrate as he continues through this amazing letter.

We do that sometimes …

Just venting … getting it off our chest … but why?

Today maybe we can substitute “evangelical or fundamental Christian” for “Jew,” and
“the Bible” for “the law” but the issue is the same. We claim to have it all and know ourselves as guides to the blind and light shining in darkness.

But has our religion led us into something other than an assent to, or a knowledge of, the truth of God? Is our truth compelling enough to change our lives? We say that Jesus is Lord but does he rule our lives? Do we obey him no matter what?

How foolish to call God Sovereign, when as mere humans we call his holy instruction into question and defy and disobey him in basic tenets of the faith!

We strain God’s holy words through our grids of human rationalization and personal self-interest. We no longer hear God. We merely talk to ourselves.

I love God’s people, but I have no qualms about attacking religion that takes us farther from God even though we profess intimacy with our lips.

Dave

Message Title: Checking our Firmware – Pop Quiz for Guides to the Blind!

Message Text: Romans 2:17-29

• PDF 6 Pop Quiz for Guides to the Blind : Romans 2-17-29 : FFC : dave scott : 0081714 : STUDY SHEET ONE
• PDF 6 Pop Quiz for Guides to the Blind : Romans 2-17-29 : FFC : dave scott : 0081714 : STUDY SHEET TWO