Important New Facebook Pages that You Need to be Aware of.

As the ministries in the school continue to grow, and the fact that summer is just around the corner, we are looking for ways to better stay in touch with each other.  Newly formed Facebook pages is one way that we are going to attempt to do that, so if you would like to stay informed on what we are doing the remainder of this year and in the summer like these pages:

Panthers for Christ

This is a newly formed club at the high school and we are already seeing God grow it in numbers and in influence in the school.  Pray for us as we try to get this club up and running smoothly before school lets out.  So that we can take that momentum into the summer and ultimately into the next school year.  This week is going to be our official kick-off.  We have had previous meetings, but now we think we have worked out the kinks and have a direction now.

Panthers for Christ will be meeting this Wednesday morning at 7:40 in the Multi-purpose room.

There will be donuts and juice.

Joe Gunter will be leading the devotional.

Cougars for Christ

Cougars for Christ is the Middle School version of Panthers for Christ.  C4C is a club that Mark Leet had originally started and Natalie Leet still sponsors, that I took over last year.  This year with help from Kent Wilson, we have seen amazing growth with as many as 80 students attending the weekly Friday morning devotionals, and over 200 attending the Monthly Club Days.  Like our page to stay up-to-date with not only the exciting end of the year event that we are planning, but also all of the opportunities available to you during the summer.

Flemingsburg Baptist Church Youth Group

This is the page for our youth group.  This will provide you all of the information along with this website you are currently at for Bible Study lessons, events, and recommendations for how to strengthen your walk with Christ.

Our Youth Group is committed to the whole teaching of God’s Word and seek to be faithful in practicing, teaching, and equipping others to live out Deuteronomy 6:5-7:

You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

The goal of our youth group is to help our students love God, love people, and to serve the world starting with one home at a time.

•Achieve this goal in four ways:

1.) Bible Studies (To teach them who God is so that they will better be able to love God.  Because you cannot love God if you do not think rightly about God.)

2.) Service Events (To be able to serve the world and  to show them the love of God, starting first with our own community.)

3.) Big Events (To be able to be better equipped and to regain focus.)

4.) Small Events (To build fellowship with other like minded believers so they can together reach our goal.  And for us to build a closer relationship with the students so that we might be able to better disciple them.)

You can download our brochure here: FBC Brochure.

April Article for the Newsletter

Spring is in the air and soon we will be hearing the joyful noise of a ball hitting leather and the crack of baseball bats once again.  April 1^st marks the first day of the professional Baseball season.  On this day, the defending NL Central Division champions will open up at home on with Albert Pujols, Mike Trout, and Josh Hamilton coming to town for a three game series.  My passion is especially intensified this year with the announcement that the 2015 All Star Game will be coming to nearby Cincinnati.  In addition, our local minor league team gear up this month as well.  The Lexington Legends open up at home April the 8^th.   

Growing up, sports were always part of my life; I played baseball, football, basketball, and soccer as a child.  Played four sports in High School (Basketball freshman year, wrestling the other three years, and football and baseball all four years).  I also went to college and competed in three sports my freshman year before finally sticking with wrestling my final three years.  I also worked as the intramural director while at school, so not only did I get to direct all sorts of sports, but of course I would have to compete in every event as well.  After college, my involvement with sports did not end.  I coached high school wrestling and baseball while in Louisville, and baseball last year when I  moved to Fleming County; I have even helped some with Montgomery County’s Wrestling team this year.

I say all this to point out that of all the sports that I have played, two have stuck out to me: Baseball and Wrestling.  That is because, not only do I see the physical value of the sport, but they also have helped me spiritually in developing me into the Godly man that I am today.  Not that I am perfect, but I am more like Christ because of the discipline that comes through these two sports.

Today, I will address why I love the game of Baseball and maybe someday I will try to communicate the same for the sport of wrestling.

I see baseball as an illustration of the Gospel.  I see the perfect manicured fields and the simple game that a child can play at the age of five in his backyard with sticks and rocks as what God planned this world to be back in the Garden of Eden.

However, baseball also reminds us of our failures.  It is a game of errors, strikeouts, and mistakes.  You are considered one of the greats if you are successful 3 out of 10 at bats in your career.  Therefore, anybody that has ever played the game knows that we all make mistakes, we all fail.  Baseball is a game of failure, and it is because we all fail is why we need a Savior.  And, that Savior is Jesus Christ and if we repent and believe then we can have a right standing with God once again.

Once we repent of our sins and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, Savior, and Treasure, the God of this universe will through His Spirit start making us look more and more like His Son Jesus Christ.  Therefore, we will start to grow in our faith.  Jesus told us that if you love me then you will keep my commandments.  I see baseball being an image of that as well.  God did not give us commandments to be burdensome to us, but to help us get the most joy out of life.  Just like in baseball, if there were no rules it would be total chaos, with people running around with bats and throwing balls everywhere.  However, we have rules to get the most joy out of the game of baseball, just like we have commandments to get the most joy out of life.

Therefore, I love baseball because it points me to the Gospel.  Not only that, but it is also a tool for discipleship.  So as you enjoy the sport this spring and summer, remember not to waste baseball thinking it is about you, use it as a tool, to point you to Christ.

Ryan Fullerton Session VI at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 6 with Ryan Fullerton from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

Hebrews 1-2:1-4

These Truths that will Bind Our Soul to Expository Preaching

– The goal is to fuel expository ministry

The Central Call:

– We must pay closer attention to what we have heard.

– Jesus came preaching.

1.) The Danger of Spiritual Drift.

– We naturally drift away, we have to be constantly laboring upstream.

– The Danger of apostasy, making a shipwreck of the faith.

– Moses built God’s peace – Jesus is God’s peace – Joshua brought God’s peace – Jesus is God’s peace.

2.) Without the Word We Will Certainly be Condemned.

– God does not make empty threats

– paralleled passage Hebrews 10:8.

– In Old Testament, if you do not listen you are physically dead

– In New Testament, if you do not listen to the Gospel you are spiritually and eternally dead.

– Certainty of judgement

3.) Greatness of our Salvation

– Motivation of Christian

– You do not want to go to Hell, but you also should want to be with Jesus forever.

– When you have God’s Word you always have something to preach: Hebrews 10:12.

David Helm Session V at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 5 with David Helm from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

The Challenges of Biblical Exposition:

Contextualization, Exegesis, Theological Reflection, Application

What is it going to take to accomplish Biblical Preaching?

– Biblical Exposition: When the shape and emphasis of the sermon is joyfully restrained by the shape and emphasis of the text fulfilled in the Gospel.

– When the content and intent of the sermon are the content and intent of the text.

– Contextualization: is taking the text and explaining it in the context of today’s culture.

– We forget that God’s Word can exegete our culture better than we can.

– We forget that we are already in our culture.

1 Samuel 2:12-21

– About the Holiness of God and Transition to King.

– Not tips for parenting

– Jesus is the replacement of the priesthood and is the true king.

Exodus 3:1-4

– impressionistic preaching is improb preaching.

– impressionistic preaching is like a drunk leaning on a street light, he uses it for support rather than for illumination.

John 13:1-17

– Example of how Jesus loved them to the end.

– Displaying his sacrifice.

– What is the Road to Christ?

Joshua 8:29

– Christ both enemy and deliverer, ironic us of passage.

– You can kill Christianity through Christ-centered preaching when it is done impressionisticly.

Application

-Applications are already embedded in the text.

Ephesians 6:10-20

– Teaching us to stand against the enemy

– What is the best application, priority?

– Look for the aim or intent

– Is it primary or just a possible application?

– Does it undermine the text?

– Does it conflict with other Scripture?

Dr. Mohler Session IV at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 4 with R. Albert Mohler, Jr. from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

What is the Big Deal?

The Foolishness of Preaching, Why Expository Preaching is a Bad Idea.

Reformation– Centrality of the Church is Biblical Preaching

Agents of the Downfall of Preaching

1.) Revival of Piatism (Morality Preaching), Revivalism (Conversion Focused Preaching), and Pragmatism (Whatever Works Preaching)

2.) Liberalism (Bible Cannot be True), Existentialism (Meaningless), and Consumerism (Whatever Sells).

– These agents resulted because culture changed, not because the homiletic’s first changed.

Why Expository Preaching is a Bad Idea.

1.) No One Listens to Long Spoken or Written Words.

2.) No One Knows the Bible.

– Involves literacy in a culture of dwindling literacy especially of the Bible.

3.) Too Preacher Centric.

4.) It Does Not Relate to My Everyday Life.

5.) It Will Kill a Church.

-Numerically and Emotionally

6.) Not Every Text of the Bible Deserves to be Preached.

7.) It is Based on Out Dated Authorities.

Why We Have to Preach Expository Sermons Anyways

– Expository Preaching is Our Calling.

– Human Beings Have Not Changed. They Still are Sinners That Desperately Need To Hear the Words of God.

– If Scripture is the Word of God, Then Expository Preaching is Demanded From Us.

– In Every Verse of the Bible God is Currently Speaking and Preaching is Communicating What God is Saying to Our Church.

1 Corinthians 1 God’s Word is foolishness to us until by God’s Grace it Becomes Wisdom.

Edward Copeland Session III at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 3 with K. Edward Copeland from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

Colossians 1:28-29

– We do not argue, we announce. We are not arguing, we are announcing historical fact.

– We are not the hero of our presentation.

– Our position of office does not excuse us from the warnings or standards of the Bible, but holds us to a higher standard.

– Apply the Word to yourself first.

– It is possible to be a starving chef

– It is possible to be a drowning lifeguard.

– You cannot save someone else on the air plane unless you first get oxygen for yourself.

– We need wisdom, not just create Frankenstein messages, taking pieces from other messages or from commentaries.

– Emphasis on wisdom in the book of Colossians.

– Our goal is not to create a spiritual welfare state.

– Our goal is to be able to present our sheep to Christ as fully nourished.

* Which number will Christ be worried about membership? attendance? or how many full fledged disciples in the church?

– Striving=Wrestling/ stay in shape for the contest.

– Just because we cannot raise the dead, it does not excuse us from neglecting the gym.

– Labor, but it is a sweet labor.

– We are not preaching for a response, we are preaching for a result.

Mark Dever Session II at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 2 with Mark Dever from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

John 12:37-50

Is the Only Reason Why People Do Not Believe is Because We Did Not Teach Them Right?

– v. 37 Response of Unbelievers

– v. 47 When Jesus performs miracles of healing, he does so as signs of who He is and what He has come to do.

Why Did They Still Reject Him Despite the Signs?

Is. 53

1.) Belief never involves the mind alone.  It is comprehensive.

– By rejecting the Word of God, you are rejecting God.

– v. 48 Rejecting Words, Rejects Jesus, Then rejects God Himself.

– Coming to Church is dangerous, the delusion is that we are judges of the sermon, but God’s Word should be changing us, or our hearts will become more hardened.

– 1 Peter 1&2, if we follow Christ, we will know rejection.

– v.41&44 Real belief is centered in Jesus.

-v.49-50 Seeing Jesus for who He is, is seeing God.

2.) Belief in God Brings Real Benefits (Eternal Life)

– We begin to live the way we were created to.

Two Types of Hybrid Believers

1.) Secret Believers

– What kind of belief is this?

– They loved the praise of man more than the praise of God.

– Jesus will have no secret followers.

2.) Inactive Believers

– v.47-48

– They will listen, but wont do.

– Their actions wont change.

– They believe time is short, but they live as if time is long.

– Do not just describe the Gospel, call them to respond to the Gospel.

Mike Bullmore Session I at Building Healthy Churches Conference

9Marks at Southern 2013: Session 1 with Mike Bullmore from Southern Seminary on Vimeo.

Why Exposition? Why Do We Preach Expositorially?

– Preaching God’s Word is our fundamental task and there is no more effective way to serve our church than by preaching God’s Word.

– Biblical Preaching is that in which both content and intent of sermon is controlled by the content and intent of the passage of scripture.

– Determine why this text is here in the passage.

– What is God seeking to say.  The task of the sermon is to let God’s Word Speak.

Why is Biblical Preaching Needed?

– Because lost people need to hear the Word of God.

– The church needs to hear His instructions.

Deut 8:1-3

– We were made for more than just our physical appetites.

– We live in God, by feeding on His Word.

– Because our people need it in order to live rightly.

4 Things About the Word of God That Displays Why We Should Preach Bibically

1.) God breathes scripture.

– Our God Speaks.  God still speaks by what He has spoken.

2.) Understandableness of Scripture.

– No one drifts into excellence.  You can only drift away.

3.) The Usefulness of Scripture.

– God’s Word can be trusted for the feeding of your sheep.

4.) The Ethicacy of Scripture.

– God’s Word gets things done. Psalm 19.

*The text is no longer being judged, just the readers are.

Top 200 Ministry Blogs

Top 200 Ministry Blogs.

Free Books Given Away at 9 Marks at Southern: Building Healthy Churches Conference

Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever

Reverberation by Leeman

Preaching and Preachers by Lloyd-Jones

A Guide to Expository Ministry by Dan Dumas

Preaching: The Centrality of Scripture by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

50 Crucial Questions by Piper & Grudem

Living the Cross Centered Life by C.J. Mahaney

Humility by C.J. Mahaney

Am I Called? by Harvey