We would turn in our hymnals to song 264
Song number 264 blessed assurance song 264 blessed assurance Jesus is nine
I don't know, I guess.
Can I have a bulletin, somebody?
Uh, you like, am I getting, yeah, you like,
you mind getting some bulletins?
Just help pass them out.
Oh, okay, we got one.
All right, welcome.
So let's just address the elephant in the room.
I broke my clavicle two days ago, whenever.
I was at a men's retreat with Steadfast Baptist Church.
It's not a great story, but I'm going to tell it anyways.
It was the relay race.
I was running.
And I guess I'm just not young anymore or something.
I hit a divot, lost my balance, went forward,
catapulted myself onto my shoulder,
and then proceeded to break my clavicle enough
that I'll need surgery probably as early as tomorrow.
So I'm on my way to the Rogue Grand Valley.
Fortunately, my dad's a doctor in Mexico.
And he already has a surgeon lined up.
So God willing, if it all works out,
I should be in surgery tomorrow
and then we start the recovery process.
So I do have a couple of longer announcements.
Pastor Cobb will be preaching for us today.
He was already on schedule, so it's great.
But let's go through the regular announcements
and then I'll cover this stuff.
But today's August 17th,
it's good to have Liberty and her family back.
And we also have some birthdays to celebrate,
but it's Sunday morning services at 10.30 AM.
Sunday evening is 4 30 p.m. And then Wednesday services 5 30 p.m. Our soul winning time is 2 p.m.
And then our memory chapter is Philippians 1 and we are for this week on Philippians 1 3
I thank my God upon every remembrance of you all the kids should be able to quote this one and get some ice cream in one week
I mean
I know some of the other ones are longer,
but I expect all the ice cream to be gone by the end of this week.
I mean, if you guys cannot remember this one,
I'm going to be like, I'll talk to your parents.
I'll be like, what's going on, parents?
Then the soul winning numbers for the year,
we have 181 people,
we have 181 souls won so far this year.
Then we have birthdays, today's Eli's birthday,
so we did bring some cupcakes for anybody who wants to celebrate afterwards.
And then we do have a big event coming up.
And let me go through the events
and then we'll do that is Pastor Anderson is coming
to preach for us Friday at 7 p.m. August 22nd.
And then we have a soul winning marathon August 23rd
that Saturday and I'll get those details out.
And then for those of you, let me know
if anybody's going to the fire breathing
back to the fellowship.
I was planned to speak to preach that Sunday.
If I can, I'm still going to make it.
I'm not gonna just back down, but I don't know I'm just gonna be honest with you
I don't know what the what the surgery looks like with the so the only challenge about having a dad who's a doctor is
He's a doctor. He's not gonna tell me I'm like that's what's up, and he's not gonna tell me anything till I get there
So he's not he's like I already took care of it. Everything's fine. You'll be in surgery. You're gonna be great
I'm like, yeah, but I need like some information. He's like and he's your dad. He doesn't care, right? So
Yes, like he does it like this is like my wife will tell you
She was even making fun of him this morning like in a nice way because we were talking about
She was asking me the same question. She's like, oh, I know your dad. Ah, it's okay. Okay. Ah, yeah
So and then the Mexico city soul winning
Missus trip if anybody's interested in going I know a couple guys were let me know
I probably will not be going to that
Depends on the like again on the recovery if I can get mobility like I am gonna go to all these things
But it really
If my mobility is restricted, I'm not gonna do any of that, of course
And on the back we have the prayer request. There's a couple I missed there will be on the next bulletin
But back there we did add and then I mean of course just pray for me just speedy recovery
It sounds like it should I should be back to normal here in a couple of weeks or months
But you never know with it all this stuff
I mean I was supposed to be back after a trip and just ready to roll and a little bit happened so
Now with all that being said there's a couple of things that really I need help with
Now that this has occurred so the timing is just perfect
We have the brother heath is working on the baby mother room in the back
So that should be done this week, and then that's really where we would expect the moms to go if they needed it.
You know, the babies are just being too loud or anything, and it's specifically for moms and babies.
I know some of the older children in an area will work on that next.
And then, but for now, if any of the kids get loud, just, you know, bring over here to where the TV is in the kitchen area.
And then if we can just try to minimize like no actually just no eating during the service
Just because there's been a lot of and that goes for my kids, too
You guys know what I'm talking about. So let me just make that very clear
And so the other thing I
Agree with some of the parents that has been an issue the children
I know it's hard for the children to play but if we can just keep the running to minimum
because obviously if you bump into someone it could be that's not uh if you were to bump into me
right now it'd be very painful right so just let's keep the running to a minimum obviously during
church let's keep the noise down to a minimum as well and then the distractions I mean sorry my
Now when it comes to what's going on right now, I don't know what what
Recovery looks like. I don't know what my preachy schedule looks like
So I do have a couple of men lined up that could do that and if you don't have a sermon or you're not comfortable enough to preach
Just let me know with enough time
Pastor Shelley has actually let me know that he could send somebody to preach for us. So we're not, you know, the only service
I'm canceling is I am canceling
Tonight service so there will be no church tonight. So winning
You guys need to figure it out on your own because I've got to get on the road after this so that I can make it to
The valley and get ready for surgery
But a couple of things that have been standing out that I really need help with
So sister silvia and he usually are helping with like cleaning up the church
She has a regular schedule, but she can't always make it and usually what ends up happening is if she doesn't make it
I'll clean the church. So I've been cleaning the church for the better part of I don't know like five six years
It doesn't bother me. I usually you guys probably never knew that until now because I have to so
If I just need if you can't make it then just after services just try to leave everything as clean as possible
Because I usually don't say anything because I'm going to come in and take out trash
You know, I know the the restaurants have those small trash cans, which we probably need to get bigger one
So just if you need to change the bags and if you don't know where anything's add ask
Sister Sylvia or sister Linda the other thing is I would ask
We do have all the snacks and supplies in the back room
The only people allowed back there are the parents no kids because you know just and be a free-for-all
I don't know normally. I don't say anything because we're here
but now that you know these things because you guys don't know this stuff like i'm the one that
you're just keeping an eye on this uh the soul winning like i i'd ask you not to stop it so
just you guys coordinate among yourselves soul winning time is two o'clock you guys know where
all the materials are we have plenty of bibles we have plenty of handouts you guys know how to get a map
and how to go to an apartment complex.
If you don't know how to do it,
just pick an apartment complex.
It's not in this area.
So it's not all Spanish speaking,
because that is a problem, right?
Last week we went and that was the only one
that was able to give the gospel.
And it's not just you guys, just you know,
Brother Mike, when he first started coming with me,
we went like a couple of times
that he finally like turned to me and he goes,
hey, you think we can go soul waiting somewhere else?
And I thought, I didn't know where it's coming from.
He's like, I'd like to give the gospel as well.
He's like, you're the only one that's giving the gospel.
I was like, yeah, let's go soul waiting somewhere else.
But it wasn't because I was trying to hog it.
It's just everybody speaks Spanish around here.
It's pretty bad.
Couple of other things.
Brother Heath and Moe run the AV.
But if anybody wants to learn it just to help out
the audio and visual, we have mics.
We have cameras.
If you guys can help out with that.
And then as far as like any of the events,
Trey is on the books with me and Pastor Cobb
on the leadership.
What I'll do is I'll talk to them.
Because brother Heath is like I just like I'll help out but don't give me more not like that's fine
so for
Like pastor Anderson coming what I'm probably what I wanted to do is just have a fellowship like maybe order pizza in because it sounds
Like he's just flying in and out
So I'll make sure to work it out where we just have accountability
Try I'll probably do a like a group chat with James and then I'll just get some cash to you or somebody
So that everybody we will the church will still cover those events. I just got to get the finances to the right people
So, and if you want to be involved in that, I'm okay with that.
Just let me know.
I mean, it's just a little bit more accountability and responsibility.
And then the only other thing I will say on the security, Pastor Anderson is a great preacher,
but he's also a hated preacher.
Of all the preachers we've had, Pastor Shelley and Pastor Anderson, they're probably the
Um, I, I don't have a problem with it.
I, Bachelors is a good friend of mine is preaching this on par with what I believe because it's
biblical, but it also does bring out the weirdos from the woods.
So security, he
Tray James you guys you have clear discretion if somebody's just acting weird just kick them out
Just get rid of them and we've done that before it doesn't have to be drama, but we will I don't anticipate that
But it's possible a brother Kevin, you know any of the men that are here if it just gets weird don't make a big scene
Actually, I'm the most
I'm probably make the biggest scene you guys are more discreet than I am so you'll handle it
I'm not worried, but I do want to just have like some security protocols
We know we have a doorbell. We have the cameras
And most of the people are coming not going to try to do anything
They're just very dramatic if they do stuff like it's more of that that kind of stuff
But I just want to I do want to if there are any questions
I'll have my phone on me. I should be able to answer everything after tuesday
But I do want to make sure that nothing stops right? I won't be here
So I really need help especially from a man to just step up
Let me know if you can preach if you can't just give me enough time so I can get somebody here
Patrick Cobb can preach as well. He's not
Opposed to it and then I know I did hear like brother Jared
I heard that you might be willing to preach. I'm but I didn't even talk to you about it
I've never heard you preach so you know, I'm just not gonna throw you up here without at least letting you know
I don't want you to come up here and preach something weird and then there's something like that.
I'm not, I'm not picking on you. I'm just saying the truth.
So, but is there any, if there's not any questions right now, at least some of the men,
if you'll just give me a few minutes afterwards just to kind of iron some of that stuff out.
That's really why I showed up today. Other than that, you guys are the church.
I mean, I know I lead it and I do a lot of the stuff, but
I mean, I'm not it you guys are it's in good hands like you guys can handle it
Make pastor Anderson feel welcome, you know promote it show up and fill the place up send me some pictures
God willing I could be back by Friday, but I'm just assuming I'm just assuming prepare for the worst like I don't think I'll be here
I don't know when I'll be back, but if I can be back, I'll be back right away
And we'll do that and other than that. Let's sing our next hymnal, which is what number mama?
319 319 brother Moe the singing and then we'll have pastor cop preach after the reading
All right, we're there in song 319 song 319 Jesus saved
288, landing on the everlasting arms.
Matthew chapter number four.
We're not gonna be reading the whole chapter,
but we'll read a few verses here,
starting in verse 17 where the Bible reads.
From that time Jesus began to preach and say repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand and Jesus walking by the sea of Galilee
Saw two brethren Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for their fishers
And he saith unto them follow me and I'll make you fishers of men and straightway
They left their nets and followed him and going on from thence he saw
other two brethren James the son of Zebedee and John his brother and a ship with Zebedee their father mending their nets
And he called them and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him
Type of quick word of prayer your father God. Thank you for this day. Thank you for all that you've given us Lord
Thank you for Pastor Cobb preaching today Lord. I pray that you
Bless the service. I pray that you be with Pastor Enrique help them to heal have this beauty recovery and be able to do the things that
that he wants to do for you Lord and pray that you fill us with your spirit help us to
help us to receive the sermon with the gladness of heart Lord and I pray that we all get home
Thanks for watching!
Okay
Well, thank the Lord the pastor and Ricky wouldn't hurt any worse than what he was it's bad enough
We really have been putting the burden on him he said his hand full and I thank the Lord for him
In all of his efforts what have you thought he does it because he loves the Lord
But be in prayer for him as he journeys down to we're gonna give him back to Mexico for that
His dad is a practicing physician done in Mexico he drives across each day from
Macallan door to
Somewhere in Mexico
Well, thank the Lord that Brother Enrique is not any worse, but bad enough as it is.
I would ask that Linda and I were up in East Texas this week, and while we were there,
was found dead behind his car. His wife came home from work post office and found him, and
far we know he hadn't been sick. He's 58 years old. But anyway, being prayer for that family,
because it's really a tragic time.
Sometimes the timing of a person's death is what counts, and we never know why.
But the Lord knows, but be in prayer for the Singleton family.
Linda and I'll be going back up there for the funeral.
They're going to have a funeral at Weatherford, Texas.
And we're going to be going back for that this week.
But we'll be available if you need us.
Don't hesitate to call.
using I've entitled it Jesus the master fisherman I bet you we've got a
2010, Lyndon and I bought a lake house off the Sembrayburn Lake out of Hunnicun. Our
house is a one mile from the lake. We bought that intending to retire up there and so forth.
But we wound up
not finding a place on our schedule to recharge completely.
But we spent a lot of time and effort getting the place
so we could fish.
But guess how many times we've been going fishing
in the last 15 years that we've had that place up there?
Zero.
the moral of the story everybody talks about fishing don't always go fishing but the Lord
was dealing with a bunch of fishermen when he started his church and that's what we're going
Let's see, fellas, make a trap.
Maybe I got it here now.
This is all trial and error.
This is the first time this has happened.
But anyway, the first church members were fishermen.
Commercial fishermen, they were.
I've had the opportunity at different times in the past
A tour host with wholesale tours, we took trips to the whole of the land and especially
on the Seal Galilee where this takes place.
It's a quiet place and people still fish there commercially.
And it's called the Seal Galilee.
But, nevertheless, it was a good place to fish and convenient for the first church members.
They were on the Sea of Galilee, and they were fishing for fish.
And folks, that's what this is about this morning.
The church used to be fishers of men.
The Lord sent the church out,
he said, go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel.
Why?
That men might be saved and live forever with us.
It's so critical that we realize the mission of the church
It's so winning, reaching out for people that don't know the Lord.
But these fellows, Peter James John and Andrew and so forth, were not born fishers of man,
But they became fishers of men instead of fishers of fish.
And the question is, which is the most important?
I always love fishing.
Y'all may not have known Dr. AJ Kirkland, who
was president of the seminary, were attended for seven years.
He and I fished a whole lot.
The only problem is, I worked the evening shift.
And we'd get out in the fish, get to Biden, and Brother Kirkland said,
oh, does that stay just a little longer, Pritchard?
He just kept on.
It was hard to pull him away from that fishery,
because he loved fishing.
But he also was a fisher of men.
The Lord blessed him, and he passed away in 73.
His replacement was Dr. Rao Brooks.
by the Kirkland's place two years ago and then I went to celebrate their 100th birthday
by the Brooks. He's now 102 and still at our cemetery, still preaching the word. Now think
And still proclaiming the word so folk that the word retirement's not in the in the books
But let's look at the great fishing acquisition of today the net that they used to fish with
becomes a snare, and of course we catch our fish through casting a net over here in
East Texas where a brother
from Zavala's from and myself
We fished a different place, but the net's a gospel of the Lord
And if you have your paper there
Let's read to Habakkuk
Chapter 11 right in the middle of the page there about chapter 11 verse 13 to 15 oh one. I'm sorry
All right, thou art of pure eyes
Than to behold evil and
Can not look on iniquity
Wherefore lookest I upon them that deal treacherously and holdest our tongue which the
Wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he
and make us men as officious of the sea,
as the creeping things that have no ruler over them.
They take up all of them with the angle.
They catch them in their net
and they gather them in their drag.
Therefore, they were joyous and are glad.
The net.
It is cast by the church all over the sea
That's the wrong with the net. It's a good net
But sometimes the net catches something you don't want
We used to go and use a sane net to go through the bowl
fishing holes and
And we'd drag forth every kind, and I remember occasion back when I was a lot younger, that
we would throw that net out, and every time we would get back to the shore, we had about
three snakes, all in that.
And focus, not too much fun.
It takes a fun out of those snakes, too.
When you cast a net, as we read in the scripture, we catch every kind, and sometimes the wrong
kind.
Linda pulled up Sonbrook out the other day and showed me, and it's not here.
We took it away from the building.
But there was a fellow that visited our services.
We went knocking on doors.
So, we didn't call it so when, but we called it visitation.
We went knocking on doors, and we passed it, and apparently we gave this guy a brochure
that was made up, and he shows up for church, and folks, you don't realize what can happen.
This guy picked up one of our song books and started writing in it, and referred himself
I've never seen such vile print and stuff in my life that someone would actually print while the
church was going on. He sat there and wrote and wrote and I found out later he had been in the
Before you never know what you're gonna run into when you knock on those doors. That's what I'm trying to tell you
By the way that book is I'm gonna
short to those that want to see it but
Literally a sign of what was written there and they're doing a lot of services going on
matter of fact, he wrote the notes of the
songs that we were singing, he wrote them and all on the pages, so he knew some things.
But that's what you may run into while you're knocking on doors, and it's, don't be surprised.
But this is called Judas at the first throw.
Isn't that something? Judas is carrot we're talking about.
There was more than one Judas in the first first church
But he called Judas the first time
And then he caught later he caught Simon Magus who was in the gall of bitterness
Notice in the gall of bitterness
Some years ago and I've been here a long time 48 years we had a fellow that had an office
And he was in the gall of bitterness.
He had a, well, if we get back, he was standing up back here
and giving his report.
And he got up, he was mad and angry at one of the other men.
And he says, I resign my office right now.
Now, how do you like that people best in the church?
What's going on?
The guy actually was that loud, I was on my position right now.
Too much later he came back and said I could have had my job back.
But he was in the gall of bitterness.
He made a statement to our congregation, I got no friends.
What the Scripture said, he that would have friends must first show himself to be friendly.
But what I'm getting at, folks, younger Christians, you may run into that sometimes.
Don't let it drag you down.
Just walk away.
There's a time to walk away, and that is the time when someone is in the gall of bitterness.
And then later in the net, they caught Simon Peter, and we're going to call Simon Peter
Some of us used to trot line all the time.
I did myself in the lake and in the rivers, and we catch those catfish.
We purposely go after the catfish.
But they were all mouths, we said.
I always had their mouth open.
When they went to get our Lord to crucify him in the garden there
Peter rebelled and said to Jesus you're not gonna have to die we're gonna take care of you
And our Lord told them
Things some things have got to be
And this is one of them that the master is going to die for his people
an old crawfish, an old catfish, I always got his mouth open. That's what gets him caught
and in trouble. That's why he gets a hook in his mouth. But Peter fit that case. Now,
I may have to look Peter in the face one day for preaching his message. He knew what he
And then, he tried to tell our Lord how to run his business.
If you want to know how to run your business, you better let the Lord do that.
Peter went one step further. When they came to take Jesus as a prisoner,
Peter took a knife and he cut one of the soldier's ears off.
Y'all remember the story.
Boy, I'm glad they had the Lord along,
because the Lord took that ear and put it back.
All right.
And some are like a crawfish.
I don't know how much about,
but when I was a little small boy,
we'd fished all the time and we'd go down to the creek
and fill in the banks and we'd grab those crawfish,
catch them and we'd sit down and have a crawfish party.
But the crawfish has some characteristics about him.
If you'll ever observe him, he crawls forward real slow.
But you send a little trouble along and phew.
lightning backwards forward no but he goes backwards fast and then there's a
jellyfish a jellyfish just swells up and folks we got some people like that they
just swell up
and it shouldn't be that way, but it is.
And then there's a drum.
You know what a little drum is?
I can't hear very well, especially in my latter days.
But one day we were fishing out in the lake there
and we found a place where there were several drums.
And while we were sitting there,
you could listen under the boat.
You hear the little drum, oh.
womb like an old bullfrog
And a lot of people make noise can't even growl a little bit
But sometimes you catch a snake as I already referred to my experience
And a snake would devour the other fish
Before we can be the kind of person that we want to be, it's up to us, but we're going
to find somewhere or another that these fish fit you.
But just coming to separation day, verse 47, that we wrote a moment ago tells us that again
That was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind.
The bad were cast away, weren't they, verse 49.
But the Lord knows who's is, and on that day of separation, we'll know.
But the thing of it is what's important is the scripture says he knows his own.
I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep. They follow me and I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them from my hand.
get mean and sad. I could do whatever to get your attention to let you know the Lord's in charge.
Not us. I don't know why the Lord let my brother, a pastor here, get banged up, but he let him,
but he's, he still get to visit with us today, and he, and thank the Lord for being prayer for
Your dad not gonna do the surgery
Yeah, well brother we'll be in prayer for you
Thank the Lord for
You they love the Lord and and tenders today
And thank you for the privilege you have you've given me to proclaim your word
God bless and keep you okay we're gonna have another song brother, okay
thank you brother
everyone's running your hymnals to song 315 song number 315 bringing in the
sheaves song 315