Christmas Is Part of The Gospel – Don’t Miss It

It is a great honor and responsibility to be the pastor of Good News at Noon in Gainesville, GA.

Our mission is to feed the hungry, shelter men, minister to the neighborhood individuals, family and children. Above all we are a gospel ministry. Very often you will see the slogan #LiftJesusUp associated with Good News at Noon. This was the message the evangelist who led our late founder Gene Beckstein to Christ shared with him as “Mr. B.” received Christ for salvation. Mr. B shared in word and deed by feeding, clothing giving shelter and sharing the gospel.

This Christmas season we have had several men respond to the message of salvation. It is the Lord’s doing as people have received daily messages of hope from over fourteen preachers. On our chapel staff.

In this Christmas season I have stressed in my preaching that Christ was born to an unwed mother and put out in the barnyard to be born. With the smell of manure in the air the King of Glory was turned out to be born around animals by relatives who descended on Bethlehem as they fulfilled the census for all relatives of David as members of the tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ fully God and now fully man was born and turned away. He left a throne in heaven to save the world and was wrapped in “swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes is a Bible word for rags.

He was born to die but also to live.

Romans 5:10 “For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

 

He had a challenging birth, a challenging life free from the curse of sin. He died on the cross to pay the sin debt we all owe. He graciously offers us pardon for sins, peace with God, citizenship in heaven and a brother – Jesus Christ.

 

This is the greatest news. While preparing to enter service last week last week I was verbally assaulted by someone in the congregation with complaints that were all

non-gospel issues. This was to me an aversion on the worship of God and the success of the offer of salvation. Several men responded to our night’s preacher Tim Leach. Today I preached about Christ, Christmas and the gospel. The Holy Spirit has stirred many hearts in our ministry lately. As soon as the service was over I waited to talk to people about Jesus. A man in bad physical condition made a statement with a “gotcha” question hidden in his conversation. He said “You seem to be Bible man.” Next, he turned on me. “Why are there so many pagan symbols here like this Christmas tree?” The man was destitute and has addiction problems. His life was in shambles. We have  our ministry to the needy and scores of Christians in this town throwing out a life-line. There are services and gospel ministries for him. What did he see as his spiritual problem? We had a Christmas tree.

 

I quickly turned to conversation to Christ, but no he wanted to spread misguided religious babble when our mission is to share the saving gospel.

Christmas is our story. The gospel saves by the child with no sin who was born to a virgin, lived a perfect life and died for us, rose from the dead victoriously, and who sent THE Holy Spirit to turn us. To the gift of salvation.

It is Christmas. Be encouraged from our Savior. We will have opposition but trust in our Savior.

 

Christmas, understand it as part of the gospel and share it.

Preachers That Used Altar Calls/Invitations

#1 Preacher - Moses

Exodus 32:26

²⁶ then Moses stood in the entrance of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side—come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.

 #2 Preacher - Moses

Deuteronomy 30:19

¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;

#3 Preacher-  Joshua

Joshua 24:15

¹⁵ And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

#4 Preacher- Elijah

1 Kings 18:21

²¹ And Elijah came to all the people, and said, “How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people answered him not a word.

#5 Preacher - Jesus

Matthew 11:28

²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 

#6 Preacher –Jesus

John 7:38 

³⁸ He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

#7 Preacher – Jesus

John 4:10 

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

#8 Preacher – Peter

Acts 2:40

⁴⁰ And with many other words he testified and exhorted them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation.”

#9 Preacher – Paul & Barnabas tag team sermon

Acts 13:43 

⁴³ Now when the congregation had broken up, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

#10 Preacher - John The Revelator

Revelation 22:17

¹⁷ And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

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SEC REPORT CARD for Saturday 9/9/17

What do the Gators winning & Auburn defending SEC pride have in common in 2017?

So far no evidence exists.

What do Kevin Sumlin and Brett Bielema and Mark Stoops have in common?

They all might need a moving company before December.

Ole Miss finds out this week after week two of the schedule in 2017 how bad

2018-19-20-and ?? will be.

Bama dominated, Kirby maybe got a building block win and everybody else enjoyed some cupcakes.

FLORIDA  - Gators F

Florida - cancelled

Northern Colorado – cancelled

Gators till winless. They host Tennessee next week.

KENTUCKY – C

Kentucky 27

Eastern Kentucky 16

C represents good in our school system.

Good everyone did not get “reassigned” at halftime.

They travel to South Carolina next week.

OLE MISS - A

Ole Miss 45

UT Martin 23

Ole Miss got the expected W.

The Rebs are bracing for the expected big L when the NCAA

Has their unbiased nothing personal meeting with them this week.

ALABAMA – A+

Alabama 41

Fresno State 10

Business as usual.

ARKANSAS - F

Arkansas 7

TCU 28

I like the big guy. The Pigs play Texas A&M in two weeks. Both of these coaching situations are getting ugly.

TENNESEE - A

Tennessee 42

Indiana State Larry Birds 7

Tennesse handled it. Bird got 2 treys and a layup.

VANDERBILT - A

Vandy 42

Alabama A&M 0

Vandy is talking big. We are still going to call you Vandy until attendance picks up.

SOUTH CAROLINA - A

MISSOURI - F

South Carolina 31

Missouri 13

South Carolina is the most improved team n the last two years.

Missouri seriouslyneeds to consider the Big 10. They just do not fir in.

TEXAS A&M -C

Texas A&M 24

Nicholls 14

AUBURN - F

Auburn 6

Clemson 14

This sounded close. Auburn suffered 11 sacks. So Clemson has a great defensive line? You playing in a conference with several.

GEORGIA - A

Georgia 20

Notre Dame 19

This could be a big building block win.

MISSISSIPPI STATE - A

Mississippi State 57

LA Tech 21

State did what they should have done.

LSU

LSU 45

Chattanooga 10

Another cupcake has been eaten.

Lord we are praying for Florida and the southeast.

Be safe. Help others. Enjoy life. Love Jesus.

Fletcher

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SEC REPORT CARD: SCHOOL IS BACK IN SESSION- Did you hear that Florida?

 The demise of the GREATEST CONFERENCE in football history – like Mark Twain said about his reported death - has been greatly exaggerated. Deal with it ESPN.

 ARKANSAS – Grade B-

This game is a worse indicator of academic football success than NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND. I like the big guy. This year Coach Bret Bielema will have all grades severely reviewed by the fat back in Fayetteville.

Arkansas 49

Florida A&M 7

 MISSOURI- Grade B-

What if they played an SEC football game and nobody cared. This is what happened.

I will try to keep from saying this repeatedly -why are they in the league?

Missouri 72

Missouri State 43

SOUTH CAROLINA – Grade A

The Gamecocks will not win the SEC EAST. They will go to a good bowl and be the spoiler for UGA, or UF for the EAST title.

South Carolina35

NC State 28

FLORIDA – Grade F

F is for Failure of drug tests and letting down the pride of the SEC as the only SEC loser this weekend.

Florida 17

Michigan 33

KENTUCKY – Grade B+

Solid win for the Cats. They let this one slip away last year.

Kentucky 24

Southern Miss 17

MISSISSIPPI STATE –  Grade B-

The school beneath Ole Miss played a school beneath FCS or D1 status. (Cousin Eddy loves to call the REBS The School Up North-Yankee humor I suppose) This told us that Mississippi State would rule in THE BIG SOUTH CONFERENCE.

Mississippi State 49

Charleston Southern

GEORGIA – Grade A

Georgia 31

App State 10

Georgia played solid against what haters want to admit was a very solid challenge in App State. I’ll say it-App State is as god as several SEC teams.

The UGA freshman Fromm studied and picked up the pace when Eason was injured.

A solid shutout performance until the backup punter came in th play QB and the shut out was lost.

OLE MISS –Grade B

Coach Matt Luke had his offense popping and us wondering if there is any D in store for the Rebs this year. Like upcoming sanctions from the previous coaching administration we will find out.

Ole Miss 47

South Alabama 27

ALABAMA- A+

Dear best team(s) in the ACC, this will happen to you 9 out of 10

times you play BAMA.

Alabama 24

Florida State 7

VANDERBILT

Vanderbilt 27

Middle Tennessee 6

LSU- Grade B-

The Mad Hatter was canned after the best decade in LSU history. His Tigers won a National Championship and played for another. Enter a colorful coach with a 300% winning record as an SEC head coach. He is a career defensive line coach and yet he was hired to spice up the offense. Looked like the same O with Coach O.

LSU 27

BYU 0

TEXAS A&M – Grade A  F for they forgot to play in the FOURTH QUARTER

As this report is being filed the Aggies are crushing UCLA on Sunday night.

Texas A&M

UCLA

TENNESSEE- Pending grade B  (Labor Day Monday night game)

This grade of B is pending as surely Butch will beat the Bees? Right Butch?

Tennessee – better score

Georgia Tech - hopefully not better

Ease up America. Jesus is Lord and football is fun.

Go Dawgs and beat the Irish!

Lift Jesus Up!

Fletcher Law