HBC Website HBC Website

Protect the gospel by strengthening the church. That is a summary of the point of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. The third chapter contains a list of qualifications churches should look for in their leaders. Choosing the right men helps strengthen the church—the wrong men will weaken it. We will explore this list over the next few Sundays.

This Lord’s Day, we are happy to have Pastor Michael Riley as our guest speaker. A former member of our church, Pastor Riley and his family live in Wakefield, Michigan, where he pastors Calvary Baptist Church. He will preach about place of honor that Jesus now holds as described in Hebrews 1:1-4.

The sermon text continues Paul’s instructions to Timothy about appropriate worship that needed to be established in the churches. It speaks to proper roles in worship for men and women. It cuts across the grain of modern assumptions, but properly understood, Paul’s instructions chart the course for strong and joy-filled ministry.

In 1 Timothy, Paul instructed Timothy to set things in order in the churches in Ephesus. The first order of business was to establish well-ordered worship. This was the concern addressed in chapter two. In 2:8-10, Paul discussed the way men and women are to conduct themselves in worship, offering correction to improper behavior. His guidance makes it clear that his concerns were no merely superficial. He was concerned about underlying issues of the heart.

Last week we looked at the third of three tests given in 1 John for determining whether or not we possess eternal life: the test of love for God’s people. We saw that since love originates from God, those who have life originating from God should show the love which also originates from Him. God’s life in someone is so inseparably linked to God’s love that John goes on to show that the absence of love demonstrates the absence of life. This week we will look at the next verses that show us the tangible demonstration of God’s love in sending His Son and its powerful implications for us.

This Lord’s Day we will look at the epistle of 1 John where John writes to help his readers know for sure whether or not they have eternal life (5:13). To help them come to this certainty, he explores three tests which in combination expose the reality or absence of spiritual life. The tests may be captured in three questions: 1) Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? 2) Do you obey His commandments? 3) Do you love fellow members of the church? Our sermon text is 1 John 4:7-11 where John explores the test of love more thoroughly. Showing love demonstrates that we possess life that originated from God because love originated from God.