The Baptist Visitor, June 27, 2017

1. FIRST SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH of NORTH HOLLYWOOD (1-818-761-4800) NON-PROFIT ORG.
“The First Family” (www.fsbcnh.org) U.S. POSTAGE PAID
10853 Victory Boulevard PERMIT #660
North Hollywood, CA 91606-3826 VAN NUYS, CA
Address Service Requested
THE BAPTIST VISITOR
Paul D. Whetstone (Interim Senior Pastor) June 27, 2017 Charles Cutney (Minister of Encouragement)
***Our Annual***
**Independence Sunday**
***WILL TAKE PLACE THIS SUNDAY, July 2, at 8:30 & 11AM and 6:30PM!!***
Here are a few things that
will make this Lord’s Day
a very special time of
Celebration:
First of all, our Choir will be
singing songs (at the 8:30AM
and 11:00AM Worship Services)
from the cantata entitled,
“God Bless the
U.S.A.”
======================
Second, Pastor Charles (at
8:30AM) and Pastor Paul (at
11:00AM) will once again each be
preaching their messages from the
same text—this time:
2 Chronicles 7:14:
“…if my people, who are called by my
name, will humble themselves and pray
and seek my face and turn from their
wicked ways, then will I hear from
heaven and will forgive their sin and
will heal their land.” (NIV)
======================
Third, Reverend Hughlen Johnson
will be bringing the message at our
6:30PM Creative Worship Service!
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OUR RECORD SPEAKS: June 18, June 25, 2017
8:30AM Worship Attendance 21 / 27
9:45AM Bible Study / Sunday School Attendance 19 / 18
11:00AM Worship Attendance 29 / 28
6:30PM Worship Attendance 18 / 16
Offering **1,565.31 / $4,271.55
(** 2016 Budget Offering Goal**$2,603.46)
Benevolence $20.00 / $25.00
Children's Ministry $00.00 / $00.00
First Family Friends Who Will Celebrate a Birthday or a
Wedding Anniversary During the Month of July
02 – Noah & Susy Dixon
03 – Craig Price
04 – Willie Olmstead
09 – Kristen Romeis
10 – Kirsten Young
11 – Terry Vandell
21 – Revayne Furniss
21 – Terraunce Peters
22 – Sandra Dee Cutney
22 – Jose & Naty Maldonado
23 – Robert Mackey
28 – Naomi Caldwell
30 – Kathie Harris

2. “How do we know when
we need ‘Revival’?
—Part 2”
Article #3 of “What is ‘Revival,’
and how does it happen?”
So far, we’ve seen that (1) it’s tough to
tell when a church is in need of “spiritual awakening” by
just looking on the surface of things; (2) that many folks
have become discouraged and disillusioned with
churches that “look spiritual,” but are really “carnal”; (3)
that the same thing holds true with individual believers
who have “backslidden inwardly,” while outwardly
doing everything right; and (4) that the following
scripture contains some clues to help us evaluate
ourselves and/or our churches to determine whether we
DO or DON’T need “Revival”:
“And one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a
question, testing Him, ‘Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the Law?’ And He said to him. 'You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and
with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the
great and foremost commandment. The second is like it,
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these
two commandments depend the whole Law and the
Prophets.”—Matthew 22:35-40 (NASB)
“Yeah, Pastor Chuck, you told me that last
week, and I’ve been wondering—how does that scripture
hook up to whether we need ‘Revival’ or not??”
Because, first of all, Revival means
“obedience,” right? So, if we’re going to be obedient,
we need to know what obedience involves, right?
“Goes without saying!”
Well, what better “gold standard” could you use
for measuring your obedience—or that of your church—
than those words of Jesus that we just quoted?
“I never thought of it that way before.”
Most believers haven’t. They still go back to the
old “nickels and noses” standard—in other words, when
you have a lot of people attending, and great offerings,
you must be doing God’s will, otherwise that wouldn’t
be the case. And yet, all of us know of churches that are
well-attended and well-supported, but when you visit a
service, all you can feel is “spiritual deadness.”
“So I guess you’re gonna say that the same
thing holds true for us individual Christians too, right?”
Absolutely!
“OK—how about givin’ us some examples of
this ‘love God and love your neighbor’ stuff.”
I’d be happy to. We might begin by asking
ourselves, what does it mean to “...love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with
all your mind (intellect). Matt 22:37[b] (AMP)?? I
believe we can safely say that it isn’t the wimpy, half-
hearted, grudgingly-given substitute for “loving God”
that we all-too-often run into in places of worship today.
It also cannot mean the careless practice of “using the
Name of the Lord in vain,” that seems to be the habit of
more and more believers today.
No, what we’re talking about might be described
as having a “holy passion” for the Lord--one which
would include regularly praising and thanking Him, and
spending time in His Word, and seeking to know His
will, and giving Him our tithes and offerings...yes, do
you have a question?
“I sure do! Didn’t you sort of make fun of
people giving money to God a little while ago? You said
that you could have a well-supported church, and STILL
need ‘Revival’!”
Let me answer that with an old saying I heard
many years ago: “You can ‘give without loving,’ but you
can’t ‘LOVE without GIVING’!!” Giving to the Lord is
one of the key indicators that you truly love Him, and
that you want to be supportive of all that He is doing in
and through His churches all across the land!
“OK, I think I’ve got it. Now what about the
second of those ‘Commandments’ Jesus mentioned?”
The Message translation puts it this way: “Love
others as well as you love yourself.” I know—that’s easy
to say, but tough to do. Let me give you another way of
looking at it: Just as we said that loving God the way
Christ described the practice is a product of “holy
passion,” trying to “love others as well as we love
ourselves” is a product of “holy COM-passion”!
Let’s look at Jesus once again, this time to what
we learn about Him in Matthew 14:14 (AMP): “When
He went ashore and saw a great throng of people, He
had compassion (pity and deep sympathy) for them...”
The word “compassion” literally means “to feel
deeply—down in your guts, actually—for someone else’s
pain and/or need.” (According to Thayer’s Lexicon, in
that day and age “...the bowels were thought to be the
seat of love and pity...”) And Jesus wasn’t ashamed to
let others know of His emotions; at another time, with a
different group of needy people, He“...called His
disciples to Him, and said, ‘I feel compassion for the
multitude...’” (Matthew 15:32—NASB)
One of the things Sandra Dee and I noticed
many years ago when we visited a place in Wales that is
known for their emphasis on prayer and Revival, was the
deep love and consideration that the people we met
showed for one another—and for us, of course (for
example, they insisted that we have lunch with them,
and were very gracious to us—and to each other—
during the meal).
The July 11 article in this series will be entitled
“The power of ‘What if?’!” Until then, try to meditate
for a while each day on Matthew 22:35-40!
June 27, 2017