Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church
1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501
March 08, 2009 
Elder Randy Johnson, Pastor                        Bro. Ronnie Henderson, Song Director  
Pastor E-Mail: sgmbcpastor@baptistsonline.org       Web Site: www.baptistsonline.org/sgmbc

"Where the truths of God’s word are taught"

You Were Asked To Pray For:

All of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry, Virgil Hoskins and his daughters Liz Janis and Debbie Gray, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Helen Maggard, Renee Jackson, Larry & Linda Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kirby Mollette, Shawn, Bridget, and Destiny Bradford, Kerry Pennington, Kim Butler, Danny & Nita Mollette, Verna Mae Allen, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn her father Elmer Harvey, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Donnie Henderson, Kevin Henderson, Ricky Henderson, Rosalie Graves, Terry Hanson, Jim Stagner, Bro. & Mrs. Hammond, Don Hammond, Archie & Barbara Griffin & son Daniel, Larry Platt, Edna Garvin, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Wanda Fowler, Kathy Rosinbaum, Brenda Galusha, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, Bobby Walker, Luann Reynolds, Bro. & Sis. Curtis Pugh and his brother Billy Jack Cooper and family, Abigail Cattemull, Timothy Fails, Jim & Linda Meier, Brother David & Sister Anne Shortt, Brother Manuel Seymour, Zach Seymour, Doris Hammock, Letha Langford, Leacho Tittle, Bro. David Green and Family , Pastor Kelley and Sister Eyvonne Hinson, Anita Marsh, Brother Frank and Sister Cyd James, Charles Boyd Jr., Brother Larry Wilson and his son Gerrod Wilson , Pastor and Sister David O’Neal, Billy and Jo Hobbs, Michael Hiem, Jerry Hughes, Nita Bookout’s Niece, Kim McCool’s Mother and Father, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.
A Thought From Our Pastor:

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name
Psalms 29:2 "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness."


I must ask this question, why do you attend church? I know it sounds rather strange to answer this question, however would you please ask yourself that question? I am saddened to know there are some who attend worship services for other reasons than to "worship the LORD". So go ahead and ask yourself that question and give some thought before you answer yourself. I would like to know the answer and see if it truly matches why the Lord told us to attend worship. The Lord told us to "Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name;" that is to recognize Him as a sovereign God, that is to recognize the sermon in every worship service is from God to you and me. The word of God was written to us beloved for several reasons but the most important reason was so we could in a correct way understand how to worship Him. The Lord wants our focus on Him and Him only, so if anything distracts you from that worship you have failed to give the Lord His due glory. Psalms 89:7 tells us "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him." Beloved I would venture to say God is not greatly feared or reverenced in most church services today. Today most church services are about everything except reverence and fear of the Lord. Most churches today fail to teach about a sovereign God and without a sovereign God He cannot be truly feared. The sovereignty of God teaches that He is able to do what He pleases and how He pleases, it also teaches that He and He alone saves sinners and without Him saving them they (no matter how many decisions they make) will never be saved. Just because one goes to church does not mean they will ever be saved. I must say it is my belief that most churches today are a house of foolishness rather than a house of fear and reverence of God. Ecclesiastes 5:1 "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil." The Lord tells us here that it is better to hear, that is it is better to stop all of the foolishness and hear the word of God. I know a former pastor that the song director and some of the men of that church told him the song service was more important than the sermon was so he must shorten his sermon, beloved those men were fools. There is nothing more important in a worship service than a sermon delivered by a man called by God to do so, period. The song service has its place but not over the sermon that the Lord has sent to the church by His called man.

"worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness." That is in the beauty of who He is and not as to what we want Him to be. God is most beautiful when uplifted in His sovereign grace and not placed as a god who cannot accomplish His own will. Our God is strong and able, and beloved that makes Him most wonderful in every way. There is nothing that makes my blood pressure rise more than to hear some clueless preacher say "God cannot change our will". Beloved God changed my will and many times in my life and if you are saved He has changed your will also. Beloved let me close on this note, If your pastor refuses to uplift the Lord as a sovereign God always doing the counsel of His own will Eph. 1:11 then may I suggest you find another church because the one you are in now does not fear and reverence the Lord.

A Thought For The Week:

SUBMISSION

Will any, or will I, pretend to teach the Most High knowledge, seeing he is excellent in all his working, and perfect in all his ways? Then, since I cannot direct him, why am not I submissive to his disposal? Can I predict events, or foresee futurities? No! How then can I promise myself serenity from a cloudless sky? or fear storms from an obscured heaven? when, as to the first, the gathering meteors may suspend an unexpected shadow before the sun; or, as to the second, the gathered clouds may scatter, and let the welcome beams refresh the weary world. So, Lord, as from present appearances, future contingencies cannot be discerned—it is my duty, and shall be my study, to be WHOLLY, FULLY, and FOREVER, at your disposal, to whom all your works, all my purposes, and all my wanderings, are known from the beginning!

O! how the Christian should glory in God's choosing for him the lot of his inheritance, and be content with that condition which Heaven accounts best for him, though not the grandest or greatest; nor the richest or happiest; nor that state he most desires. I am not my own—for I am bought with a price, and dearly paid for too! Would it not be too daring for me to instruct God how to decorate the heavens, how to set the sun, station the moon, place the poles, plant the stars, and guide the wandering planets? Now, I am as much his by right, (yes, in the ties of love, more,) and as much at his disposal, as any of these his other creatures; and if I cannot complain of his conduct with these, why quarrel at his providences toward me?

Another thing which ought to encourage to submission, is, that God's way is not only equitable in itself, but profitable for his people, for the latter end of the righteous is peace; and the end of the Lord is always gracious to his afflicted ones—who chooses them in the furnace of affliction, brings light out of darkness, order out of confusion, real good out of seeming evil; and, finally, brings through fire and water to a place of eternal glory!

By James Meikle, 1730-1799

Happy Birthday:

Alice Hoskins March 8th

Even then!

In the very beginning, when this great universe lay in the mind of God like unborn forests in the acorn-cup, long before the echoes walked the solitudes, before the mountains were brought forth, and long before the light flashed through the sky, God loved His chosen creatures!

Before there was creatureship--when the ether was not fanned by angel's wing, when space itself had not an existence, when there was nothing except God alone--even then, in that loneliness of Deity and in that deep quiet and profundity, His love moved for His chosen people.

Even then their names were written on His heart, and they were dear to His soul.

By C. H. Spurgeon