FBC San Antonio Worship - September 19, 2021

uh [Music] so they made him [Music] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign uh [Music] [Music] [Music] that's fascinating [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] yes [Music] well [Music] attractions oh [Music] [Music] we have come into his house with thanksgiving amen as we do so let's call upon the lord using his word using scripture i'll read from zephaniah 3 verses 14 through 17 as we get our hearts ready to worship this morning shout for joy o daughter of zion shout in triumph o israel rejoice and exult with all your heart o daughter of jerusalem the lord has taken away his judgment against you he has cleared away your enemies the king of israel the lord is in your midst you will fear disaster no more in that day it will be said to jerusalem do not be afraid o zion do not let your hands fall limp the lord your god is in your midst a victorious warrior he will exalt over you with joy he will be quiet in his love he will rejoice over you with shouts of joy amen aren't you grateful for that i will say most translations will will interpret that last verse as saying he will rejoice over you with loud singing i will tell you i prefer those translations but regardless grateful that the lord looks down on his children and he says well done let's gather our hearts and worship through song this morning if you'll take your hymn sheets or you'll take your hymnals and turn to number 43 singing this is my father's world let's stand together and sing [Music] slide [Music] oh [Music] so [Music] this is [Music] so [Music] so [Music] hey remain standing if you would and just welcome those around you to worship we're so grateful that you are here with us today just wave around the room god bless you if you're with us and joining us by way or television or live stream what a privilege it is to have you with us in worship today we are grateful to have you counted among us live and in person god bless [Music] then [Music] it is good to see people visiting welcome to the first baptist church of san antonio we're grateful that we can gather in worship today so thank you for those of you who could be in the room and we're grateful for our tv ministry and thankful for all of you who are worshiping on the television with us this morning it's good that we can worship across the city and across this region together being on k-set for 50 years and what a credible incredible work that has been so we're grateful for that yeah you can praise the lord for that yeah amen i do want to say if you're a guest in the room we have these visitor cards that should be on the pube in the pew back in front of you and this is how we get to know you so we get to know your name if you would take one of these and place them in the offering boxes outside at the end of the service or if you're watching on television and if you want to connect with us there's a similar kind of card on our website at fbcsa.org connect we would love to hear from you and get to know you as well i'll say this has been one of those weeks where we have had to be flexible you know we're getting i think we're getting tired of these weeks we have to be flexible and have to call audibles but this has been a week of audibles and so i hope today in the midst of the week of audibles that in this time together we can come together and look up and say we love the lord that we praise jesus and in spite of all the other things and all the other moving parts and all the other things that change around us we can cling to our rock our savior the christ because he is unchanging and his way is pure and perfect and holy and that's what we gather we gather to worship him and his holy nature so let's pray together and we'll continue in worship our lord and our king we come before you today recognizing that you are complete your perfection you hold all things in your hands and you complete all things and so lord we come before you and we praise your holy name and lord we ask for your strength and your wisdom this morning as we push through this pandemic and lord we pray that you would bring an end to it lord we pray that you would bring complete healing lord that you would bring us through and pull us up and out of this pandemic lord we know that is only by your hand that we are saved even from this and so lord as we come together to worship we worship you knowing that it's you alone who are our savior that you alone who redeem us and make us whole and so for that we sing for that we pray for that we come to the scripture we are yours father your faithful and obedient church it's in the name of our lord and savior jesus christ we pray amen we continue to worship in the word now hear from acts the first chapter beginning in verse six so when they had come together they were asking him saying lord is it at this time you are restoring the kingdom of israel he said to them it is not for you to know times or epochs which the father has fixed by his own authority but you will receive power when the holy spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses both in jerusalem and in all judea and samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth and after he said these things he was lifted up while they were looking on and a cloud received him out of their sight and as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was going behold two men in white clothing stood beside him they also said men of galilee why do you stand looking into the sky this jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven thanks be to god let's continue our worship singing together rejoice ye pure in heart it's hymn 39 standing wherever you are let's sing together [Music] children if you come meet me down on the steps i have a couple couple of things i want to show you and we're going to talk about come on down yeah good morning yeah you see what's in there morning good morning yeah come on down good morning oh good morning good morning good morning good morning good to see you good morning i love those shoes man those are those are cool hey hey everybody good morning come on down come on down good morning good morning yeah come on down come on down you're good you're good we'll give you time come on come on all right all right i think we are everybody down here all right come on i got something to show you what what is this yeah yeah this is a shirt this is one this is one of my shirts i would wear with a suit that's right you know sometimes after church i go eat and sometimes i make a memory and i make a memory where i spill ketchup on my shirt so let me ask you you if you go and you go eat and you spill something on your shirt what's the best thing to do anybody know what do you know you wash it what do you do yeah you clean it up yeah you clean it up yeah you go ahead and you change you you take it off before you clean it up right so what you do so yeah you clean it you take it up have any of you ever tried to get a stain out of your own clothes or do your parents do it for you your parents do it yeah has anybody ever tried themselves to get it out anyway yeah a couple of you good did it go okay yeah okay well let me ask you so this is this is the cup i usually drink out of uh most days when i'm here in the office you have our church that's right it's right there on there isn't it got stickers on there so sometimes i put tea in here and it starts to stain what do you do when you want to clean a cup you dump it in the washing you put it in a washing machine yeah what a or not the washing machine the dishwasher that's right what would happen if we put a cup in the washing machine yeah the dish yeah it would cause all kinds of problems it would bang around in there but yeah sometimes or even you get yeah it might it might break if we did we got to be real careful what we do with these two it could clog it too that's right sometimes i use a brush right and stick a brush down in there and clean it and and wash it out the tray so let me ask you so what if another thing what happens if we spilled something on the carpet what if i brought ketchup in here and spilled ketchup on the carpet what would we do then get a steamer and clean it up that's that's a good idea that's right yeah use a squeegee those would all be good ideas right so i would get some kind of water i would get some kind of soap and i'd start scrubbing it off here and hopefully it would come off wouldn't it yeah so i say that because i want you to listen real carefully in the sermon today today in the sermon i'm going to talk about getting really really dirty in fact i'm going to tell two stories about getting really muddy and dirty and what you listen for those stories are and how how it is jesus christ who cleanses us we're sometimes we're dirty on the outside and we just need to wash it off but sin makes us dirty on the inside when we mess up and do things we're not supposed to do and the only person that can clean that and clean us from the inside out is jesus christ and he comes in and he cleans our life with the holy spirit and makes everything right and good and gets rid of every stain because of who he is every stain that's on our heart and every stain that's in our mind jesus christ takes care of all of it okay so i want you to listen and listen in the sermon for those stories today okay all right let's pray and we'll go father we thank you for your unending love and the sacrifice of your son who washes us clean makes us pure and holy and lord we are grateful and lord we pray for every one of our children lord that you would build them up and bring them into your holiness and your purity cleansing them by your blood and by your hand it's in the name of jesus christ we pray amen thank y'all good job good job good job our reverse text has been rich this week hasn't it have you been reading this week good it's good pastor that you've been reading this week i appreciate that i hope you've been reading too um hymn 611 is is such a perfect marriage with our our text a reverse text and i love the way the the third and fourth verses end in the world's great trouble risk yourself for god share your rich resources give and give again this is a call to action a call to service everybody jim 6 11 let your heart be broken let's stand and sing [Music] so [Music] [Music] child yes [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is oh [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] amen if you would turn with me to your listening sheet we're going to read aloud our text for today it's james 1 verses 19 20 so if you would let us stand and we'll read this then is the text for today this you know my beloved brethren but everyone must be quick to hear slow to speak and slow to anger for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of god therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness in humility receive the word implanted which is able to save your souls but prove yourselves doers of the word and not merely hearers who delude themselves for if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror for once he has looked at himself and gone away he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was but one who looks intently at the perfect law the law of liberty and abides by it not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer this man will be blessed in what he does if anyone thinks himself to be religious and yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart this man's religion is worthless pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our god and father is this to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world may god bless the reading of his word when was the last time you were covered in dirt there was there ever a moment in your life where you were just had been poured over with grit and grime where you just had to run and take a shower when was the last time you were just completely covered in mud because i want to tell you there's two different stories from my life i want to share with you that speaks to these moments for me one of those is back when i was in college my parents had moved to arkansas they lived just south of little rock now and a friend there had a farm with some low spots that held water and where the water would gather was a perfect place to ride four-wheelers and so with two of us we would go out on our four-wheelers and we would play in the mud for hours and you would you would come to the end when it was done and it was like we were coated in 30 pounds of chocolate you you couldn't even see each other you could only see muddy blobs trying to get back on four-wheelers that we had fallen off of and then there comes a point as it is where you have to go home and when you have to go home and you can no longer see your shoes because of the mud you have to come up with a plan to get back into the house because if you walk into your mother's living room leaving a trail of soggy footprints across the carpet you might not survive and so literally we would stand outside in the yard with water hoses and we would just spray each other as long as it took for the mud to run off of us and into the grass james tells us this is what it's like to follow jesus or let me tell you another one a couple of years ago some friends and i hiked through the grand canyon and it was as amazing experience as you think it would be we hiked about 50 miles in five days in triple digit heat and the first day the first trail we walked down the south kaibab trail and on that trail there is no water and there is no shade and you wouldn't think you would get dirty in the grand canyon at least not like you would on a four-wheeler but you do because all day long you sweat and with every step that we took we kicked up dust so at the end of the day you're caked in this concoction of perspiration mud and you have to peel your clothes off yourself you know it's remarkable how much dust will go through your shoes past your socks and cement itself between your toes because you know the best part of that day at the end of the trail we ended up at the phantom ranch where we put on our bathing suits and we sat in a creek until dinner you see in our text this week james in verse 21 tells us this is what it's like to follow jesus christ he says think about that moment when when you're covered in mud and you turn the water hose on and you just start spraying and sort of the joy that comes when you see all of that mud drip off into the grass that's what it's like to follow jesus or it's it's like this to follow jesus when you were just worn completely out from the dust and the heat where the dust has gotten in your teeth and the dust has gotten in your ears and you can no longer walk because of all the dirt that has gotten in between your toes and you go and you sit in bright angel creek and the frigid water just rushes over your legs and it sweeps every particle downstream james is grabbing us and he's saying this is what it's like to follow jesus this is what it looks like to walk with jesus in fact look at verse 21 with me james chapter 1 verse 24 therefore putting aside all filthiness so what we need to what we need to focus in on underline the pudding aside that's we're going to start with those two words first this pudding aside we de-sanitize this word uh in the transition literally what you need to think of in the pudding aside it reads something like this and where it's normally used in a normal context in the greek is it's taking off clothes but it's not just taking off clothes it's taking off clothes that are just caked in dirt they are stained from top to bottom and and you take it off and you set it aside in fact we probably think of it like this the world is brutally hot interminably dusty so that walking through this world you are going to be beaten up and covered in layers of filth and what james is telling us james said jesus christ is different this experience that you get in the world of being beaten and covered and filth is taken care of in the person of jesus christ so if you want to know the way forward if you want to know the trail that is right it is in jesus christ he is the way the truth and the life and that is how we come into righteousness when you follow jesus christ it's like being washed anew and living in clean clothes again now we do have to be careful in james because as you work down through this especially even chapter one as you work down through chapter one it's easy for us to read this as we are cleaning ourselves when it says here it says you put put aside put aside your muddy clothes put aside all filthiness and let me stop there for a moment even the filthiness so the pudding aside is clothes that word filthiness often when it's translated it it it's very specific it's it's talking about the dust that gets into the cracks in your ears and it's some of that filthiness it's saying that all of that that has gotten back in there that you have to wash your ears out with and saying even in this world we're covered in dust from head to toe and it gets in every crack in our ears and it stops us from being able to hear they're saying get all of that out and and we have to be careful because when we hear that when we hear them say put aside those muddy clothes clean out your ears we can think it's us that i'm trying to clean myself off but we know it's like it's like being in the mud all day if i'm in them in the mud all day and and i i want to clear my clean myself off if i'm using my own hands and i just try to wipe it it's just going to make it worse in fact it just kind of smears it all over my body it gets in my hand so that everything i touch gets dirty and and i can't i can't get it off by myself or if i'm i'm tired and i'm covered in dust if i just start patting on myself if i start patting the dust off me all it does is just makes this cloud of filth that just kind of covers me and everywhere i go is just blanketed in this dust that i'm carrying around with me it doesn't make you any cleaner to try to clean yourself but you know this is how most people view religion most people think of religion as me trying to clean myself me just sort of scraping the clumps of mud and throwing them down but that doesn't work you're never going to be able to get it enough you're not going to be able to do enough good to find righteousness you're never going to be able to do enough cleansing of yourself you're not going to be able to clean your ears out enough to make yourself right before god himself in fact if if we want to be clean and and no righteousness and perfection in this world we have to stop we can't do this ourselves you're not capable of cleansing yourself in fact we just make it worse the harder we try the worse it gets the only thing that has ever worked since time began is the living water of jesus christ on some level we have to walk to the water we have to come to moments of repentance in our lives but for our lives to be cleansed from the inside out we have to stop trying and submit to jesus christ he is the one who brings forgiveness and holiness and moves us forward you cannot do this on your own but jesus christ will cleanse he's the one who does all of the cleansing like a stream at the bottom of the grand canyon jesus surrounds us and washes away every particle of sin caked into every crevice of our bodies jesus christ makes us whole and clean and pure now some of us are walking around in so many layers of mud we are unrecognizable can barely even move but jesus christ the living water will make all things new he will penetrate through the stain and he will penetrate through the filth and wash it clean and say you are forgiven you are made whole by the blood of the lamb you see there's going to come a day when the holy spirit starts to work on your heart and the holy spirit's going to start to work on your heart about the filth he's going to start to work on on your heart about the sin that has been caked up into your life and into the corners of your mind and when that comes when that comes and and you're ready to get rid of the grit and the grime come to the wellspring that is jesus christ and you will see and know how life was meant to be lived life was not meant to be lived in the mud life was not meant to be lived just covered in filth when we're covered in filth and we're covered in mud we we fall apart and some of us are so accustomed to walking around with filthy feet we don't even know what it's like to be clean in jesus christ you know it's pretty amazing down at phantom ranch when you get to the bottom of the canyon if you walk into the bathroom and look in the mirror you can tell that you are a different color your face doesn't look like it did at the top of the canyon because now you have layers and you have layers upon layers you start at the top and at the top you you cover yourself in sunscreen and after you you take the sunscreen then you start walking and you get a layer of sweat and then you walk for hours and you you get hit with all of this dust that gets kicked up in your face and your complexion begins to resemble the desert floor and as you look into that mirror you can tell it's not you or that it was you but it's you covered in a layer of filth so look down with me at verse 25 james chapter 1 verse 25 but one who looks intently at the perfect loss another line i want you to note and make note here one who looks intently at the perfect law now we've already we read earlier and hopefully you heard in sunday school and throughout the week in reverse there's this other moment in in james where he's telling us before about this man who looks in the mirror and and look as he goes and looks in the mirror when he turns away he forgets he forgets what he looks like he forgets who he is then we get to 25 and we see this one who looks intently at the perfect law and this is this is what it's like to follow jesus when you follow jesus you are looking at the perfect law and he says look intently at this law don't glance and forget it but but stare in fact that word intently as you work through the translations of that word there were all these other phrases that went along with it it says maybe you need to think about intently like this where you bend over and you squint you you bend over and you stare and you linger you see this this is what it means to look intently to bend over and put your glasses on and not let it get out of your eyesight you see look look at the perfect law like this look at jesus like this he says if you're looking at jesus you're looking at perfection but we have to be careful here too he says because the way he phrases is what is the perfect law what is this law that he's talking about because we might think that the perfect law of all of these instructions that we have been given in james chapter one we see about they're good instructions and so we see he says he says bridle your tongue that's a good instructive thing he says visit widows and orphans that's a good instructive thing he says stay unstained that's good and instructed but that's not the perfect law that's the product of the perfect law what we see the perfect law is the gospel of jesus christ this is jesus christ fulfilling the law that had been given in the old testament and jesus christ being the perfection of it that jesus steps forward and we look intently at the gospels we look intently at the person of jesus christ and we experience him and when we see and experience jesus we are looking at perfection you see what we need to recognize and be careful with as we work through james we might think that visiting a widow will be our salvation and though visiting a widow is good it is not our salvation we might think if we don't speak if we'll if we're able to hold our tongue that we'll be saved that will be right that's not going to save you that that's not what's going to bring righteousness into your life those are products of who jesus christ is in your life where we come to is a person what we come to is the holy word of god in jesus christ you see we we follow him and we get to see what could be and what should be see we fix our eyes on the gospel of jesus christ and what the kingdom of god is doing right now before us even in this pandemic you know one of the blessings of following jesus christ is watching him so closely that you get to see him and you get to see the reflection of yourself so let's look at it this way this is where james is taking us so on one hand we have this mirror that we're looking at on the other hand we have the person of jesus christ that we look at and hopefully there comes a day when those begin to to match where we begin to see jesus christ in ourselves and out of ourselves but you see when we watch jesus christ closely and then we look back at ourselves one of the things that happens is we begin to see grime that we've never noticed before you see how far that that we've fallen and and the closer you look at jesus and the closer you look at yourself in the mirror you begin to realize the extent to which the filth of this world has sunken into your pores and what it does it leads us to further repentance to fall down on our knees before jesus and say you are holy we are not and to come before him and know that he is the only way out and the only way we are cleansed is through jesus christ see james is telling us that many people have done this many people have looked in the mirror many people have looked at the gospel of jesus christ and they don't repent they don't change they don't care they forget in fact they see jesus then they see themselves and they go on about their business and they just continue to cover themselves in filth see when when you don't follow jesus you don't look intently at jesus christ and who he is you start to say mean things you won't ever listen to the people around you you won't listen to wisdom you won't listen to advice you start to get angry all the time when you're separated from jesus these are the sorts of things that happen you know and there are people who who look in in the mirror and and they they see filth in the mirror they see the kinds of things that clog your pores and cake your face and some people some people have the gall to blame the mirror instead of themselves where they say this mirror must be bad or this mirror must be covered in grime instead of myself there are all kinds of other sins too being apathetic lazy ignoring the poor ignoring the hurting ignoring orphans ignoring widows these are all just layers of mud on our lives that that if we will look careful you will see in the mirror and know this is not who you are this is not who god intended you to be this is not right it's not the mirror it is it's you that aren't right it's you that are covered in grime and need to be taken care of and if you will come to jesus christ this will be rinsed away so that you can be who you were created to be remember you were created by god and for god you were created to serve and work in his kingdom and when we're not in his kingdom and we're not in his ways life just becomes this mess that we can't get out of you see this can be the kind of person you are who jesus is who the gospel prepares us to be this is what god intended and this is where you will thrive you aren't made to walk around covered in mud you're not a pig you're not an alligator you are a human created for the glory of god and life becomes ever more difficult the more you walk around in filth of sin you see you were made to be in a relationship with god through jesus christ and life is only going to begin to feel right and life is only going to begin to make sense when you're near jesus if you're not near jesus life doesn't work if you are near jesus life flourishes you see there are far too many who are off there are far too many who are covered in filth even in the church because we have forgotten jesus we've forgotten who he is that we were created to be near him remember that is who you are you are created to be in and with jesus the further you get away from jesus the more unrecognizable this life becomes you see this life we live is not possible without jesus without him you will become ever more burdened into your own grave but with him you will be refreshingly clean you see that's our prayer for the church this morning that's our prayer for you this morning may we find our refreshment in the living water that is jesus christ this morning may he refresh and refine be our savior and our redeemer let's pray together lord we know we can't get this filth off of ourselves we need rushing water out of heaven and so lord we beg you to pour down rushing water out of heaven onto this body of believers lord would you cleanse us and purify us that we might walk in holiness and be near to you father we know and we hear in scripture that when we're repentant you forgive lord we hear in scripture when we draw and near to you you draw in near to us and lord we want to experience that this morning we want to experience the freedom of walking around in your forgiveness clean and whole lord would you would you reveal that and and lord would you bring us to that moment lord we pray that you would restore us lord we we need your restoration in our hearts and in our lives we need your restoration of our minds lord would you come and restore as only you can restore lord our hands are tired our feet are weary would you come and pick us up and make all things new may your spirit come may your spirit come and heal give us that hope that only comes from heaven it's in the name of our lord and risen savior jesus christ we pray amen we're going to have a time of response now and we pray that everybody in here will respond to god in some way this morning there's a number of ways you can uh one of those there's some responses on your listening sheet maybe you could respond in one of those ways the altar is open if you want to come down and kneel and pray you know i'll be praying over this side pastor brian's here he'll be praying over this side i will also receive you want to come and talk about accepting christ or being a part of this church we'll visit with you right now we're going to sing together we're going to worship together but you take this time and respond faithfully and obediently unto the lord so let's stand and let's respond [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] it's wonderful let me give you a couple of life together moments a couple things we want you to know one of those is we are 160. and all year long we've been celebrating our 160th birthday and the great ministry that god has given us here the last 160 years and so there's a couple of things you still need to know about that 160th things that we're doing one of those the big celebration is october 17th that's when we normally have our annual church picnic they share our annual church picnic is going to be a big birthday celebration there's some surprises there's going to be games it's going to be fun there's going to be food and so we hope you'll um come to that we want everybody to be there it's going to be a fun time together but you do need a ticket that helps us get the right amount of food purchased so if you will find a ticket either online or out in unity hall we'll go to get you one and that's going to be a wonderful time now also with 160th we've also been able to write a new updated church history edition so you know we have various books including those purple books that you see up there that give you the complete history of the church uh the last 160 years and we have a new edition that covers 2001 through 2021 that's much of don guthrie's ministry and all the great things that we were able to accomplish in that time and then into the transition a little bit so we'd love you to get a copy of that you can find those online or out in unity hall as well now this evening we need you to come back so this evening at six o'clock we're going to have our time for teaching on discipleship but it's going to be more than time for teaching there's a couple extra things we want you to experience one of those we are going to worship together shall be some time of worship at the beginning and then also i'm going to do a mini state of the church address and and talk about some of the things that we see and some of the things that concern us and some of the things that we hope for and so i'm going to do a small state of the church address and then use that to jump into the next session section of time for teaching on discipleship so it's going to be a good night together we hope you'll come and be a part of that with us also october 3rd is coming up we're we're beginning back with our area fellowships so before covid we would do area fellowships where um four sundays a year we would meet in homes across the city and have a meal and have a bible study and enjoy one another's company in our neighborhoods and so throughout coveted we did a little bit of that over zoom but we're starting to add some more homes and we're starting to add um times of area fellowship in homes as well as some zoom opportunities so area fellowships are going to be back and going in fact we've already filmed the bible study for for that day it's going to be a good one and it's going to point to our next uh reverse uh study series so we think that's going to be good but if you would register for that online and find the area fellowship that is in your area that will be good then also october 10th won't you be aware of this if if you are new to first baptist or if you're you're thinking about joining or if you've just joined or you're new in recent months we have a class for review it's called our discover class and it goes uh it's on sunday october 10. it'll begin at 8 30 a.m and then you you get the story of this church you get to hear about our history our ministries um then we get to have lunch together and i'll get to have lunch with you and some other other ministers and then we'll we'll talk about the things that are coming and and ways that we minister here and and um things that are important to us and so that's that's a good time for new people to first baptist so if you're new we'd love for you to sign up for that and get to spend some time together on that day sunday october 10. now these altar flowers in front of me these are given to the glory of god and in grateful celebration of 68 years of marriage for gene and nancy pennington so praise the lord for them and that example of marriage that is a beautiful thing and and out of that beautiful example of 68 years of marriage we turn our attention to pastor jimmy so pastor jimmy come and lead us in our family home dedications good morning church family uh this is an exciting day for us we've been praying for these days for a long time with newborns being born and welcoming them and coming into our kids ministry and coming into the church and so these are days that we look forward to and that we're excited about and so today we have uh five families that are joining us to publicly tell everybody that they are going to raise their kids to know who the lord is now that they're going to lead their kids to know who jesus is and to know to follow his example and to lead by example in their home in outside the home and anywhere that they go and so last week we hosted them and walked through deuteronomy 6 4-9 together and work through what that means for the family what god has called each of us to as parents and so we walked through that and today they are ready to stand before you the congregation and and publicly commit to that but then also to ask you guys for your help also in helping to lead their kids and to lead their families in the way of the lord and so i'm going to introduce the families and they're going to come up here and stand on the steps or and meet us over here so if your family or friends and would like to join them in standing today when i call their names feel free to stand where you are our first family is quen jay and celeste banda and they are here today dedicating their family with ava ava is one year old and was born on december 12 2019. and they're joined up here by big sister liora and my big brother isaiah and our second family is danny and letty cansino and they are here today dedicating their family with trey and trey just turned one year old last week on september 12 20 21 and he was born in 2020 and they're also joined up here by big sisters annalise and ella and then we've got byron and leslie pitts and they are here today dedicating darcy and clara and clara is three years old and darcy is almost six months old and was born on march 30th 2021 and they're also joined up here by big brother keith then we've got mike and jackie piatt and they are here today dedicating their family with emily and andrew emily is five years old and andrew is four months old he was born on may 13th 2021 and then carl and chris sovka plus are here today and they are dedicating their family with alexander alexander is eight months old and was born on january 15th 2021 and he's also joined up here by his big brother kirill okay so families do you commit by god's grace to live out the gospel in your own marriages humbly loving and serving one another do you commit by god's grace to mature your own faith in jesus recognizing that your children are more likely to follow the path that you model for them and do you commit by god's grace to consistently point your kids to the gospel of jesus through word and through deed and family is a beautiful and wonderful thing it is it is part of how god shares his story with us and and how he introduced family even in creation itself and build us up as a church and calling us to church family even among our family uh with our immediate family and our blood family and how these come together in a perfect and holy way it is a wonderful thing and so with this we are called and we are commissioned as a church to walk with these families to say we're going to support you we're going to love you and we are going to help you any way we possibly can for you to raise your child and your children up in the way of the lord and so church we want you to make that commitment with us so if you would want you would you stand and make this commitment with us in church so if if you are willing if you're willing to walk in faith and help these families love on their children and help these families grow these children up in faith would you say amen and we love you that's right now if you you would have a seat we're going to we're going to offer a prayer over each one of these new little lives that that are in these families and in our fellowship so let's pray together father we are grateful for the sound of babies lord it is a beautiful thing to hear a child express themselves and share their hearts and everything that's going on and in their minds and in their hearts and lord it is a beautiful thing and lord we pray that you would magnify the voices of these children lord would you help them to know you and lord would your spirit come upon them so that they would be near to you and lord we pray for your protection over them lord we pray that you would protect them from evil lord we pray that you would protect them from this virus and you would grow them up in your word lord we pray that you would implant your word deep into their hearts so that as these children grow they would grow up into faithful men and women of god and lord we pray as a church any possible way we can help and be a part of that growth lord we pray that you would make it so and lord we pray that you would make it obvious and lord we pray that their voices would be amplified as they proclaim jesus christ as their savior and lord as they begin to tell others about who he is and so lord would you grow them up and draw them in near to jesus and make them yours it's in the name of our lord and savior jesus christ we pray amen then thank you all wonderful let's stand together church and sing praise god from whom all blessings flow [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you

Channel: First Baptist Church of San Antonio

Views: 97

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: FBCSA, FBC San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas, Baptist Church, USA, Church, James

Id: gBUdE6R1KrI

Length: 79min 55sec (4795 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 19 2021