Prayer Concerns
• Sharon Angelokos – recovering from appendix surgery.
• Russell Dean – having stomach troubles and weak, being evaluated by doctors.
• Keith & Pam Blore – COVID 19, Keith still weak, Pam is doing fine.
• Debbie Campbell – rehab in Greenville.
• Earl Martin – continuing to deal with an infection.
• Polly Lineberger – Unit II at Martha Franks, recovering from a fall.
• Don Franks – home recovering after recent surgery.
• Mike & Susan Little – Mike: surgery today, Susan: speech/memory issues.
• Phyllis Metz – NHC, rehab after broken hip.
• Francis Feighner – Hospice Clinton, advanced stages of cancer.
• Jim & Elaine Sumeral – homebound, ongoing health issues.
• Carolyn Madden – cognitive/physical issues.
• Jane Ivey – recent surgery, hopeful to begin to feel better.
• Bill Ramey – continuing to take treatments.
Announcements
Outside In Person Worship: we are offering two weekly services at 8am and 9:30am. Both last 30 minutes and take place at Thomason Shelter. Dress casually and join us.
Remote Worship Options: We will continue to post a worship service every Sunday on our website and via the FBC Laurens App. You may also listen to our service on WLBG at 11:00 each Sunday morning.
Fall Programming: Please read carefully the September Tie which shares about the many Fall opportunities we will provide for all ages.
Senior Adult Sunday School on the Radio: Join us at 3pm each Tuesday afternoon on WLBG. The 30 minute lessons will be offered by a FBC Sunday School teacher.
FBC Diverge Youth Parking Lot Worship, Bible Study, Fellowship and Fun, tonight at Thomason Shelter, 7pm.
Last Online Wednesday Reflection: This is the last online Wednesday Reflection that we will produce. As you will notice in the September Tie, beginning Wednesday, September 23, we will be offering two Bible Study options for Adults on Wednesdays. One will be during the day in person and the other at night online. We hope that you will join us for one of these two opportunities.
Reflecting Together
Read: Matthew 4:1-11
On a whim in late spring of my senior year in college, I did something that I had always wanted to do. I attended an open tryout with a professional baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds.
It is important to keep in mind that this was an open tryout. In other words, the Cincinnati Reds had already signed the players that they wanted and were just making one more sweep through the area just in case they had missed someone whose talent had been overlooked by the team’s scouts.
After signing in at the tryout, I was assigned to a particular group that was led through a series of different skill evaluations. The scout who was assigned to lead our group was supportive and encouraging. He told me that I possessed impressive speed on the bases. Defensively, I was told that I had a good glove and that my throws from the outfield to the bases were strong and accurate. I began to think that I was the diamond in the rough that just might impress the Reds organization.
Then came the hitting evaluation.
My adversary was a tall pitcher from Georgia who had already been clocked in the ninety mile an hour range. I never saw the first three pitches, but I did hear and feel them go by me. After twenty pitches, I only managed to hit two foul balls and a weak dribbler down the first base line. The once encouraging scout told me, “Son, if you can’t hit that kind of pitching, then you won’t be able to help the Cincinnati Reds.” Embedded in that statement were the words, “You are not good enough.”
You are not enough. These four words comprise one of the enemy’s cruelest and most destructive lies. This lie can be so effective that Satan used it on Jesus in the wilderness. “If you are the Son of God,” then turn these stones into fresh baked loaves, leap from the top of the temple, kneel before me and have all the kingdoms of the world. Satan was telling Jesus that he didn’t have enough provisions, enough power, enough potential. In summary, Satan was telling Jesus that He was not enough.
How did Jesus respond? He encountered each lie with the words of scripture while grounding Himself in God’s word. He allowed scripture to guide His steps and shape His responses. In the Heavenly Father, Jesus was deeply loved, celebrated and empowered and so are we.
If Jesus, the living Word, needed to use the written Word to deal with the enemy of the Word, how much more do we?
There are times when we carry the unspoken feeling that we are not enough. We are not enough for our spouse or children. We are not enough for our parents. We are not enough as a leader, teacher, coach or employee. The enemy whispers these lies in our ears, but God’s word offers a counterpoint to each of these lies.
The Bible is God’s love letter to us. It describes how He sees us. It expresses His great love for us which is a love that isn’t based on anything we say or do but a love that is based on the simple fact that we are His children. In this, we find our worth in His eyes. In this, we come to understand that we are enough.
Consider this:
• Read Ephesians 1:1-8, 1 Peter 2:9, and 1 John 3:1. What do these passages tell us about ourselves and our worth in God’s eyes?
• Is there an area of your life where you feel that you are not enough? What verses from God’s Word can you claim to counteract these lies?
• Is there someone you know who may feel that they are not enough? What scripture could you use to encourage them?
Prayer: Father, thank you for your incredible love for me. Help me to see my worth through your eyes and not what the world says about me. Through your Word, protect me each day from the deceit and lies of the enemy. In Jesus’ name, Amen.