Good Friday Sermon Preview
Preaching – Todd Terry
I want to invite everyone reading this to join us this Friday at 6:00 PM for our “Good Friday” service. There will be time for singing, prayer, testimony and teaching from God’s Word. Also, childcare will be provided (infants – 4 years old). Here are some things to think through before we gather on Friday evening: What does Good Friday have to do with the Garden of Eden? What does the cross have to do with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? What does Jesus have to do with Adam? What do either of these things have to do with us at all? Why should we care? These are all important questions and I pray that we will be able to answer these along with several other questions this Friday at our “Good Friday” Service.
Songs for Friday –
Easter Sunday Sermon Preview
Preaching – James D’Souza
Sermon Title – Dying So We May Live
Preaching Text – 2 Corinthians 4:7-12
Meditation Passage – Psalm 16
Call to Worship Passage – Psalm 34
Benediction Passage – Rom 15:13
Let’s all commit to pray for Pastor Todd and his family as they take the month of April to rest, reflect, and recharge. I would also like to encourage everyone to pray for the glory of our Lord to be manifested in our Good Friday and Easter services this weekend.
The preaching text for Sunday will be 2 Corinthians 4:7-12. Paul is writing to a church with whom he has a lot of history. In Acts 18, we find that Paul established the church in the city of Corinth during his second missionary journey. When Paul writes 1 Corinthians, he has already written a previous letter to them that was not intended to be preserved in the Scriptures (1 Cor 5:9-13). He writes to a proud church that is lax about matters of sin and holiness and in need of correction and guidance in a number of areas. In between 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, Paul makes a “painful” visit (2 Cor 2:1; 12:14) and then writes a “severe” letter that leads the Corinthians to experience godly sorrow and repentance (2 Cor 2:4; 7:8-13). Now Paul finds it necessary to write a fourth letter to the Corinthian church. False apostles had sought to create a wedge between Paul and the Corinthian church in order to usurp his influence there and to propagate a different gospel among them. Their methodology for accomplishing this maneuver was a smear campaign against Paul and his ministry companions. Paul writes this letter in defense of his apostleship, but ultimately he is defending the gospel which he stewards as an apostle of Jesus Christ. What we find in this passage is that the gospel itself provides its own defense against all its opponents. Paul helps the Corinthian church and, by extension, Grace Community Baptist Church, to understand how the gospel alone can unleash the resurrection power of God in the lives of those who believe it. I pray you enjoy feasting on the Scriptures this week as we reflect on the death and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Songs for Sunday –
Christ The Lord Is Risen Today
Behold Our God
Jerusalem
Speak O Lord
Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery