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Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Lord,

This coming Lord’s Day we are going to continue our look at 2 John 1:7-8 where the beloved Disciple warns the church about a grave danger she always faces, that of false teaching. And John’s concern is the spread of a brand of false doctrine that specifically centers on the Person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As you remember, the situation that John is addressing is the fact that an unspecified number of former church members have left the fellowship of believers in Asia Minor.  And having defected from the congregation, they have begun to travel around the area, visiting church after church, and seeking to encourage and recruit believers to embrace their malignant teachings.

At the very heart of their false message is the belief that our Lord was not the Son of God and Savior of the world as we understand Him to be. They refused to “confess” that Jesus is both fully God and fully man (v. 7).  And by the way this Epistle reads, it would seem that these false-prophets enjoyed some measure of success among the churches.

So John has written to the local church in Asia Minor seeking to warn them and to help them to confidently identify these “many deceivers” who are seeking to lead the unsuspecting into a disastrous theological error.

But then in the last part of verse 7 things seem to change, and we read about “the deceiver” and “the antichrist”:

“Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.”

By any measure, that’s a very ominous warning for the church and for all of us who are followers of Jesus. The “many deceivers” (plural) are in some way linked to “the deceiver” and “the antichrist” (singular). What does this mean? What is their connection? And what do we do? What is our duty in light of this most dangerous and deadly situation confronting us in the world?

The answer according to John is summarized by one word, “watch.”

As we prepare for worship, let us pray that through the proclamation of God’s Word we can learn what it is to “watch.”

Sunday School Begins on September 10th

We are looking forward to the beginning of our Fall Sunday School Semester on September 10. There will be classes for all ages beginning at 9:15 AM each week. In preparation for the start of SundaySchool we are asking all parents of infants through high school age children to register for Sunday School on the church website by August 10. The link is on the homepage under ‘Children.’ Thank you so much for helping our teachers prepare!

Fall Schedule of Bible Studies for Men and Women.

For Women

There are two week-day Bible study options available for our Ladies—our Tuesday Night study led by Gretchen McKee, and our WednesdayMorning study led by Kathy Cooper and Dona Sims.  Both groups will be studying Peacemaking Women: Biblical Hope for Resolving Conflict, written by Tara Barthel and Judy Dabler.  These studies will begin on Tuesday September 5, and Wednesday September 6.

Many of you are familiar with The Peacemaker by Ken Sande, and Peacemaking Women is a sequel to that important book that specifically applies the Biblical peacemaking principles to women and their relationships. As we have discovered recently in our sermon series from the Epistle of Second John, love for one another is to be a key distinctive of the Church and of Christian discipleship.  Of course, this is challenged when there is relational conflict or friction.  And while the potential for such friction and strife is part and parcel of life on this side of the Fall, there is a Biblical strategy for dealing with it in a way that both honors our Lord and leads to the edification of the body of Christ.

It is also quite apparent that in our technologically-dependent world, relationships are more complicated than ever, and with this comes a greater potential for difficulty.  This means that we must work even harder to maintain good Christ-centered relationships with each other, beginning in the home with our own families, and then with our fellow-believers in the Church.

I want to encourage all of our sisters in Christ to take advantage of one of these opportunities for study. Not only will you learn the skills needed for Biblical conflict resolution, but you will enjoy rich fellowship while making new friends and establishing strong and loving connections with each other, all to the glory of the One who saved us.

Below is a link where you may purchase your copy of the book. And please contact Gretchen, Kathy, or Dona for more information.

https://www.amazon.com/Peacemaking-Women-Biblical-Resolving-Conflict/dp/0801064953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1501671457&sr=8-1&keywords=peacemaking+women

For Men and Young Men

Our four-week Men’s Fall Bible Study, for all of our men and young men, will begin on Sunday September 10, from 2:30 to 4:00 PM at the Church, and continue on September 17, 24, and October 1.

Our theme is Maintaining Moral Purity, and specifically, how we might guard ourselves and our homes from the scourge of pornography. The pervasiveness and accessibility of pornography is a profound threat to our spiritual health, to our homes and families, and to the peace and purity of the Church. And given the sheer power and devastating consequences of this threat, we need to develop a Biblically-based strategy for doing battle against this soul-killing enemy. Given the importance of this topic, I want to encourage all of our brothers to be a part of our study.

In addition to God’s Word, our textbook will be Finally Free: Fighting for Purity With the Power of Grace, by Heath Lambert.  During the course of this brief time of study, we will seek to be both encouraged and challenged to become men of moral purity in a decadent culture. This study is designed not only for the men of the Church, but for our young men and sons as well (the content will be presented in a way that is most appropriate for our teen-aged young men).

A link where you may secure your copy of Finally Free is below, and for more information please contact Mark Cooper.

https://www.amazon.com/Finally-Free-Fighting-Purity-Power/dp/0310499232/ref=pd_sbs_14_1?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0310499232&pd_rd_r=EGMGTT37RA2FZD4S206E&pd_rd_w=4w0mw&pd_rd_wg=rf2lo&psc=1&refRID=EGMGTT37RA2FZD4S206E

I love you all with all my heart!

Mike