9:00 AM SUNDAY SCHOOL

We reviewed our memory verses again in First Kings (1:35; 8:23). In every possible way, our Lord Christ Jesus is greater than Solomon (1Ki 1:35; 2:3-4). God has increased the boundaries of redemption beyond the borders of Israel (Ps 2:8) by appointing Him ruler forever over all the redeemed ones of the earth. He purchased them with His own blood (Rev 5:9) on the cross—a once-for-all-time sacrifice that effectively secures their salvation forever (Heb 9:12, 28). On that cross, what began in a minor key with the words: “My God, my God why have You forsaken Me?” ends in a key change to major with the triumphant three-word resolution: “It is finished!” Nothing more needs to be added to it. Now, God calls upon all men everywhere to repent and believe in Christ Jesus His Son as Lord and Savior (Ac 17:30-31).

Because Christ is now ascended to the right hand of the Father in heaven, He has poured out the Spirit of God upon His servants so that they may walk before Him “with all their hearts” (1Ki 8:23). In heaven, there is no such thing as a half-hearted Christian. It should not be so upon the earth. The most precious thing to Christ is in keeping “covenant and mercy” with those He has purchased. We have so much to be thankful for—and truly humbled by—in so great a Savior as our Lord Jesus.

After this, we had a time of prayer requests and sharing of praises for answered prayer. We also read a missionary letter from our missionaries Bob and Teresa Reister. They serve the Lord in Japan. We then closed this portion of our class with public prayer for our church, our community, our country, and our world.

For our final 30 minutes, we began an overview of First Kings.

We saw that First Kings broke into two easy to remember parts, just as with Second Samuel. The first half of the book deals with: THE REIGN OF SOLOMON, chs 1-11. The latter half of the book details: THE DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM, chs 12-22. From that point, we looked at the broad points outlined in the first eleven chapters of the book.

Major chapter points to remember under THE REIGN OF SOLOMON:

• Solomon’s coronation
• Solomon’s rise
• Solomon’s temple
• Solomon’s fame
• Solomon’s fall

Next Sunday, March 10, we’ll pick up in First Kings with the second major division of the book in chapters 12-22. We encourage all to come and learn with us.

10:30 AM MORNING WORSHIP

In our Bible Lesson during Morning Worship, we looked at Hebrews 12, verses 2-4. You can visit our “Sermons” page to access the mp3 and PDF of slides for that message.

Major points to remember from the message

• Jesus is the exemplar of our faith—Role Model, Originator, Completer
• Before the cross w/death in view, Jesus embraced God’s future w/joy
• Going to the cross, Jesus counted its momentary shame as nothing
• On the cross, Jesus clung w/conviction to God and His promises
• After the cross, Jesus prepared His disciples for the race of faith ahead
• We are to reflect deeply upon our Lord & His triumphant race of faith
• We are to strive against sin even if it means losing our life for the sake of Christ’s name (See also Mt 16:24-27; Jn 6:37-40)
• “Jesus broke the power of eternal death over God’s elect. If we are God’s children, we rejoice that eternal death is made impotent – since it is Christ who will raise us up at the Last Day.”

4:00 PM AFTERNOON STUDY

This afternoon, we began a 5-part DVD series entitled: “The Spreading Flame – 1,000 Years of Church History.” Part 1 was entitled: “Comes the Dawn” and took us on a brief course through the Dark Ages in the second millennium to early believers in various parts of Europe. We learned of the Waldenses in Italy and the Huguenots in France. We saw Wittenberg University where Luther taught and the church door upon which he nailed his famous 95 theses starting, in effect, the Protestant Reformation. We saw monuments in Central Europe to the reformers Zwingli, Beza, and Calvin who turned back the darkness of their day with clear and powerful expositions of biblical truth that all could understand. We heard about the Reformation in Scotland under Knox and the Bible translation work of the English martyrs Wycliffe and Tyndale.

We want to encourage you to come and hear for yourselves what God has done in history for the last 1,000 years to bring His gospel of grace in Christ Jesus to all nations by faithful, dedicated servants of His word. This series concludes at the end of March and will be followed up in the beginning of April with our new Banner series on “Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically.” Again, we encourage all to attend one or all of these opportunities to publicly gather for worship and instruction.