Weekly Update | October 24th, 2023
Nothing to Offer...Much to Receive
Hey there Fifth Street Baptist Church family and friends! I hope you guys are having an awesome week. We had a wonderful weekend of worship and I was excited to see many of you at church on Sunday morning. God is moving through the ministries of Fifth Street Baptist Church.
One of the things I talked about on Sunday morning was what it means to come to Jesus like a child - ultimately that means we come to him in complete and total dependency on him and what he has to offer. Meaning we bring nothing to the table except our repentance and trust and faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior.
In my message I referred to a passage out of Ephesians chapter 2 that I wanted to talk about today. Ephesians chap 2: 8 and9 say "For by Grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is a gift of God not as a result of works so that no one may boast".
Darlene and I and the girls had an opportunity - a very good friend of ours and his wife invited us to come join them at their Beach House a while, a few years ago. I remember them calling us and saying "Hey if you guys can get away we'd love to have you come to our house and just want to give you an opportunity to get away from everything for a couple days and just really enjoy some time away".
So man, I was excited and you don't have to ask me twice to leave and go enjoy a couple days at a beach house. I was real excited we packed everything up, we got to the house and talked with them and you know what was really interesting and really sort of melted my heart is this really awesome couple had just sort of laid everything out for us for those days while we were there.
So we got there and they had like gifts ready for my kids and we got in the house, they had our rooms ready and everything was - you could tell they really worked just to prepare and show us this exorbitant hospitality, demonstrate their love for us and it was awesome. They just lavished this great love upon us and gifting these days with them at this beach house and we enjoyed dinner and we enjoyed special coffee that they had brought to the house for us because they know I love coffee. We enjoyed time to the beach, we enjoyed going to restaurants - the whole thing was just amazing.
And I just, what was interesting is I loved it and it was this amazing gift but I found myself really struggling with "What can I offer?" "What can I pay for?" "How can I give you something?" And they just kept telling me "No, no we're we're going to just gift this to you so you can have an amazing time and you don't have to worry about one single thing while you're here".
We didn't and man, I was so thankful. That was just God's gift to us from this couple and they just ministered to us and it was amazing.
I was thinking about that today when I was reading Ephesians 2:8-9. Often times we come to Jesus and we feel like we've got to bring something to him to earn the gift of Salvation or his continued love if you're a Believer. Sometimes you feel like "Oh I need to work and do these things for Jesus so that he'll keep loving me or keep blessing me" and that's not how this works at all.
Jesus said just come to me, just give yourself to me with total and complete dependency. You've got nothing to offer him right? We have no righteousness whatsoever that could earn the gift of Salvation because it's a gift because God offers it to us free and clear if we would just turn from our sin and place our faith in Jesus. He just gives it to us and gives it to us for eternity.
So we serve Jesus out of love as a demonstration or as fruit of the Salvation that's already taken place because of what God's done inside of us through Jesus Christ - not something we earned but a free gift from our God our Father in heaven.
So I want you to remember that you've got nothing to earn, nothing that you deserve from the Lord God in heaven - the gift of Salvation through Jesus. So just enjoy the gift and enjoy the grace and the mercy that God has showered upon you through his son Jesus. And I pray that that'll be encouragement for you this week.
We have a couple things coming up in the next few days:
- On Wednesday night at 6pm we have our quarterly celebration and business meeting. Come and hear about everything that God is doing at F Street Baptist Church and celebrate with us what he's going to do in the next quarter of ministry.
- We have of course on Sunday morning our Sunday school at 9:45 and church at 11:00.
- Right after church on Sunday the 29th we have our new members class so please come and join, make sure to RSVP this week if you're going to come because we do have a free lunch.
- Then Sunday night is our annual quarterly Association Florida Keys Baptist Association of churches meeting at Big Pine Key Baptist Church that's going to be at 5pm with dinner provided.
- And on the 31st, on Halloween night, we have Trunk or Treat. This is our Outreach to the community - we provide trunks and everyone walks through and picks up their candy. We preach and teach the gospel during that time. Our worship team will be doing music, it's going to be an amazing night. So make sure that you join us for that.
If you're interested in hosting a family-friendly Bible oriented trunk, please let our office know and we'll get you situated.
We've got lots going on and God is on the move here at Fist Street! I hope you have a great week and please join us for many of the great things that we're doing in the next few days.
God bless you and I look forward to seeing you again soon!
God Bless,
Sunday Morning Service
Sunday Setlist:
Praise
Graves Into Gardens
In Jesus Name (God Of Possible)
Gratitude
Softly And Tenderly
Midweek Service
Sunday Evening Service
Sunday School
You're invited to Sunday school to connect with other believers and study the Word of God together.
Chris Fernandez - Co-Ed Adults 2
Hospitality Room
David Ellard - College & Career
MultiPurpose Room
Bruce Winegarden - Co-Ed Adults
Classroom 3
Gwen Sommers - Adult Women
TNT Room
Alice Parker - Children (pre-K to 2nd Grade)
Classroom 2
Brittany and Becky - Children (3rd-5th Grade)
Classroom 5
Jeffrey Matthews - Youth (6th to 12th Grade)
Youth Room
Current Events
CURRENT EVENTS
10/25/2023 Quarterly Celebration
10/29/2023 New Member's Class
10/31/2023 Fall Festival
Full Church Calendar: https://bit.ly/ChurchCalendarFSBC
