Ferguson Avenue Baptist Church 10050 Ferguson Avenue v Savannah, Georgia 31406

Bob Dimmitt Senior Pastor 912-398-4363 bob@fabchurch.com

Tom Keller Assoc. Pastor/ Senior Adults 912-308-3767 tom@fabchurch.com

Steve Posner Elder 912-704-5617 steve@fabchurch.com

Church Phone: 912-355-0949 office@fabchurch.com www.fabchurch.com

Announcements Where Christ Is Exalted and the Fellowship Is Exciting

Church Services Please RSVP for next Sunday, August 16, by filling out the Signup link we will send in an email early this week. Please choose whether to sit in the sanctuary (mask optional) or in the piano side overflow room (mask required). If you cannot access the online signup, please call the church or email office@fabchurch.com. Our live stream schedule and links to both FaceBook and YouTube can be found on our website: www.fabchurch.com/live-stream

Evening Worship Services Make plans to join us tonight, August 9, at 7:00 p.m. for our informal evening worship time in the gym. No signup necessary, and there is plenty of room to spread out.

Senior Saints Bible Study Join Tom Keller for the Thursday Morning Bible Study in the fellowship hall on August 13. Coffee will be provided. This study will also be streamed live on our usual channels.

Communion We will celebrate Communion next Sunday morning, August 16. Because of these times, the elements will not be passed, but will be available, prepackaged, for each of you to pick up at the door when you come in. Please join us!

Wades’ New Address Here is the new address for Tim and Lauren: 189 N. Cleveland Road Lexington, KY 40509 They still have their same cell phone numbers, and tim@fabchurch.com will still be operative for the next few weeks, at least. Pray for them during this exciting time of transition!

August 9 , 2020

FABC Elders

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August 9, 2020

10:30 a.m.

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship Romans 5:6-8

Hymn #477, bulletin p. 4 “At Calvary”

Prayer of General Confession Tom Keller

Isaiah 61:10

Hymn, bulletin p. 5 “Grace”

Scripture Reading 1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Bobby Deloach

Hymn, bulletin p. 6 “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”

Message Bob Dimmitt

Remembering, Part 2 1 Corinthians 11:23-32, 1 Corinthians #65

Hymn, below “Doxology”

Old Hundred tune

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen

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A .M. Notes

Remembering, Part 2 1 Corinthians #65 1 Corinthians 11:23-32 The Lord’s Supper points us in three interrelated directions (past-present and fu-ture) First, our covenant relationship with God is grounded_________________________ ______________________________________________________________________ Second, (DA Carson): covenant ceremonies often imply the way of life embodied in God’s commands Third, just as the Passover pointed forward to the promised land, so too the Lord’s Supper points forward to that day when “it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” G Fee: The Lord’s Supper reminds us that we now find ourselves living between the two comings of Christ, called to be reconciled to God and to one another. The purpose of the Lord’s Supper is not to just recall data from the past but to call us anew to trust Christ’s provision in our everyday life

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God Does His Greatest Work through Simple Acts of Obedience Sacrifice and compassion—done with hiddenness and humility—are never wasted in God’s kingdom. Written by J.D. Greear Throughout the book of Judges, we see time and time again that God brings down the most powerful tyrants through weak human instruments simply doing his bidding—like left-handed Ehud, cowardly Gideon, the impulsive powerhouse Sam-son, and Jael, a housewife with a tent peg. The writer of Judges is trying to make a point: God doesn’t need our ability (he never has), only our availability. God did it then, and he still does it today. He overturns unjust world systems through weak people walking in obedience. You see, Judges was written to prepare Israel for Jesus. At the beginning of the book, the judges prevail through the traditional means of military might. But the numbers dwindle as you go along. Deborah was able to send out an entire army. Gideon only went to battle with 300 men. And Samson, the last judge in the book, stands alone. This is no accident. Israel was being prepared for the One who would overturn all the powers of death and hell through one simple submission to the Father. Jesus didn’t overturn death and hell through a mighty show of force; he didn’t come with a band of angels but through humble and faithful obedience, and he calls us now to follow him in obedience and trust. And, just as God transformed the world through Jesus’ obedience, he’ll continue to do the same through our obedience. It’s hard to think of a principle more applicable to parenthood, in which some days feels like a long string of mundane tasks, including changing diapers, getting kids to and from school, and trying to convince your kids that Cheetos and Pop-Tarts don’t make for a balanced diet. Add to that reality that becoming a parent just makes you feel more ill-equipped than ever because parenting is just plain tough. I’m convinced that parenting today is more complicated than when I grew up. For instance, if you’re a parent, you were probably pretty distraught when you left the hospital after having that first kid and you realized they didn’t give you an in-struction manual. That’s not new. Our parents knew that terror, too. But today, we often have the opposite problem: Everybody and their mother has opinions on how you can be the perfect parent. And they’re more than willing to share. Often. I know from experience how suffocating that can be. What Jesus says to you is not, “OK, here’s your perfect parenting manual. Better get it right.” Sure, the Bible instructs us on how to raise our kids, but he mainly calls us to obey and trust him as he fights the battle through us.

Articles

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God does his greatest work through simple acts of obedience. That should be an encouragement especially to those of you in the toddler trenches. What you’re doing may not feel like an honor. But it’s in a thousand small acts that your child is going to learn that love is unconditional: waking up at any hour of the night to help with a problem, large or small; comforting after a bad day at school or hurt feelings; forgiving and asking for forgiveness; believing the best, no matter what; and never giving up. Those moments shape your children in profound ways, even though they are hid-den, private, and seemingly mundane. Pastor Zack Eswine says, “Almost anything in life that truly matters will require you to do small, mostly overlooked things, over a long period of time.” Sacrifice and compassion—done with hiddenness and humility—are never wasted in God’s kingdom. That’s the path of Jesus, who served those closest to him to the point of death. v Keeping Gossip out of Prayer Requests By Matt Mitchell Oh, those infamous prayer requests! “We need to pray for Olivia and Liam. I heard that they might be getting a di-vorce!” “I’m calling to ask for prayer for the church board. Something big is happening tonight. The chairman might resign!” How do we keep gossip out of our prayers? This is the most frequently asked question people ask me since I began teaching on resisting gossip. It’s complicated. We want to encourage intercessory prayer, so we create phone chains and email prayer lists, and we solicit requests from people at small group meetings. However, prayer requests come from sinners, are about sinners and are passed on to other sinners, so there are plenty of opportunities for sinful gossip to enter into the process (Proverbs 10:19). Here is a mental checklist I developed for managing prayer requests in a careful, godly manner. Before you pass on a request, make sure to: check your facts, check your role, check your audience, and check your heart. Check Your Facts Prayer requests can get muddled very fast. If the situation is not something poten-tially shameful, getting the facts wrong may not be a big deal. If it gets reported that “Cheryl is having her tonsils out,” when Cheryl is really going to have her wisdom teeth removed, it’s embarrassing to the one with the incorrect facts, but not embar-rassing to Cheryl. But if we report that “Cheryl got cut from the softball team” or “Cheryl lost her job” or “Cheryl broke up with Jeremy,” and it’s not true, then it could be very damaging. So, check your facts. Is this info straight from the person it’s about? Don’t trans-mit hearsay or rumor. Make sure what you are passing on is true. And remember—don’t say more than you have to. You don’t have to share all of the juicy details. God knows all about it.

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Check Your Role Are you the right person to pass on this request? Do the people being talked about want this request to be made known? Would they want it repeated? Is the prayer request confidential? (If so, keep it that way!) Is it your place to pass it on? Should you shoulder this prayer burden alone and not pass it on to others? Many of us never ask ourselves these key questions, but we should. Sometimes we still need to pray for people who wouldn’t want it—unbelievers who don’t be-lieve in prayer, for example. But, often, simply applying Jesus’ Golden Rule an-swers a lot of difficult questions: “Do to others what you would have done to you” (Matt. 7:12). Check Your Audience Some people shouldn’t be trusted with certain prayer requests. Think about the person you are talking with. Are they tempted to be a gossip? Do they seem over-eager to hear bad news? Do they have a reputation for being unsafe with confi-dences (Proverbs 11:13)? Be discerning. There may be nothing wrong with passing a request on to Melinda but everything wrong with passing it on to Daryl. Check Your Heart Sinful gossip is bearing bad news behind someone’s back out of a bad heart. What is your motivation for sharing this prayer request? Is it loving? Is it for the glory of God? Be honest. Do you actually want to be seen as someone “in the know” with an inside scoop? Do you want to impress your listener? Do you get a surreptitious thrill from sharing the secret? Would you say it differently if the person you’re talk-ing about was present? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, be very careful how you handle information about other people. Anyone can be tempted to gossip. But we can avoid it if we slow down and evaluate whether we are the right person, with the right motivation, talking to the right audience with the right information. A good prayer request comes from the good stored up in a good heart, and one day, we’ll all have to give an account for the prayer requests we passed on (cf. Matthew 12:35-36). May we be found faithful.

I f you take away God and the Bible the best one can hope for is expressed by neuroscientist V.S Ramachandran: “…it never ceases to amaze me that all the richness of our mental life—all our feelings, our emotions, our thoughts, our

ambitions, our love lives, our religious sentiments and even what each of us regards as his or her own intimate private self-is simply the activity of these little specks of jelly in our heads, in our brains. There is nothing else.” Believing and thinking like this will put one in the deepest, darkest pit in which there is no escape and no hope-this is true emptiness, I thank God I have been spared this view of life.

Bob Dimmitt

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Missionary of the Week

Mario & Elizabeta Kushner Croatia

Mario and Elizabeta have reestablished a church in a small Croatian town. Mario was a student at the TBA, where Kris Brackett is a teacher. Elizabeta gave birth to their daughter, Tena, on August 4, so I emailed Mario for prayer requests, and he sent this:

We are thankful that:

· the c-section went well · our baby Tena is healthy · the hospital and staff are great

· Tena does not have her daddy’s big nose J

We need prayers that:

· Elizabeta’s pain subsides soon · Elizabeta starts walking again · Elizabeta’s health issues don’t get worse (the c-

section was neccessary because of some problems with her colon) · Tena continues to grow and develop · the hospital releases them home soon (and I can finally see them in person;

they won’t let me in the ward because of the Coronavirus situation)

He asked me to be sure and greet the saints at FABC!

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Bible Reading Schedule August 2020

2 Peter

This Week at FABC

Today Morning Worship: Meeting & live stream on YouTube and Facebook 10:30 a.m. Evening Worship Meeting 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday

Prayer & Bible Study: Live stream only on YouTube and Facebook 7:00 p.m.

Thursday Senior Adult Bible Study: Meeting & live stream on YouTube and Facebook 10:00 a.m.

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6 7 8 9 10

11 12 13 14 15

16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25

26 27 28 29 30

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Memorize: 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence...

2 Peter 1:3, ESV

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For Hearing Impaired If you have difficulties hearing, we have listening aid devices available. Ask any of the ushers, or the technician in the sound booth, if you are in need of one of these devices.

If you have any questions concerning the message from today, or are interested in obtaining information about church membership, please see any

of the pastors after the service, drop a note in the offering plate indicating your desire to talk with a pastor, or call the church office.

� Video and audio recordings of the messages are available for listening or

downloading from www.fabchurch.com/sermons

Church Phone: 355-0949 Church Email: office@fabchurch.com Church Website: www.fabchurch.com

Extra Notes:

Lockup Deacons for August: Lance Ficek, Kelly Stanford