Sovereign Grace Missionary Baptist Church 1217 Dillon Texarkana, Texas 75501 January 05, 2014 Newsletter Number 446 Brother Randy Johnson, Pastor Brother Ronnie Henderson, Song Director Pastor E-Mail: pastor@sgmbaptist.com Web Site: www.sgmbaptist.com "Where The Truths Of God’s Word Have Been Taught For More Than Fifty Years”

You Were Asked To Pray For: All of Our Military, Their Family’s & All the Civilian Workers in The Middle East, Zee Mink Fuller and Family, Her son’s Bryan Armstrong and Hunter Hackie, Daughter Shannon, and Brother Philip & Sondra Thornsberry, Junior Baldridge, Frankie Baldridge and daughter, Buckie Thompson, Frank & Sonya Trusty, Frank & Dawana Reigel, Andrew Preston, Larry & Martha Mollette, Larry Mollette II & Family, Kerry Pennington, Kim Poole, Danny & Nita Mollette, Robert Riggs, Wendell Henderson, Judy Dunn, Martha Gray, Joshua Kidd, Matthew Kidd, Ronnie and Sarah Henderson, Ronnie Henderson Jr. & Children, Ricky Henderson and Family, Jacie Henderson, Velma Hammond, Charles, Don Hammond and Families, Archie & Barbara Griffin, Bro. & Sister Bob Keller, Mary Ramsey, Donna Johnson, Fay Johnson, James and Luann Reynolds, Timothy and Nathan Fails, Jacob Ramsey, Jerry Hughes, Sister Nita Bookout, Teresa Bookout, Pastor G. L. Burr, Melody Carr, Janie Capps, Imajo Tracy, Linda Hughes, Roy Lemmon, Rosie Tomlin, Lee Mollette’s Daughter & Granddaughter Kristal, Pat Abercrombie, Donna Jones, Dale and Linda Trahan, Ricky and Margaret McCoy, Brother David O’Neal, Tommy Walker and family, Diane Thomas, Gina Peel, James and Lynn Tomlin, Brother Kelley and Sister Hinson, Robert, Megan Whitaker, Manual Seymour, Sr. Brother Jerry and Sister Jean Dodson, Brother Curtis Pugh, Brother Dan Sullivan and the work in Thailand, Brother Raul and the work in Romania, and Bro. Sergey Mochalov and the Churches in Russia.

Church News: Happy Birthday to Sister Juanita Bookout Tuesday January 07 There will be a church business meeting today at the 4:00 service.

From Our Pastor: May I Only Preach The Word Of God! "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 1 Corinthians 2:4 I pray often that what I preach is Gods words and not my own. I have heard preachers who use a very limited amount of scriptures in their sermons and I have never enjoyed one. I love to hear scriptures and not man babbling on to show how smart they are. However when you are not teaching truth I guess adding a lot of scriptures is not essential. Paul said "And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom..." as brilliant (humanly speaking) as Paul was He did not want to entice people with his own words of wisdom, he did not desire to show people how smart and great he was, unlike so many today. The word of God is powerful, it can move a lifeless heart from the dead to living, it can move mountains, and it can save sinners if coupled with the power of the Holy Spirit. "... but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:" A great example of this is the church signs in front of church buildings, look and see how many use scriptures and how many use mans wisdom. What are they saying; man's wisdom is more powerful than the scriptures? People drive by those signs sometimes everyday only to see some very ignorant quote that some unintelligent person thought up (man's wisdom). It is like their thinking is "the scriptures can't explain the thought like I can" Those signs are the only thing some lost person might ever see as far as the church goes, they may never go to church, and all they see is some very ignorant quote that (most of the time) doesn't even make sense. The word of God is powerful because it is what God uses to change people like Saul of Tarsus. Paul also said in 1Corinthians 2:2 "For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Was this because Paul was ignorant? Maybe he could not think fast enough on his feet. No, it was because Paul had determined that Gods word is more powerful than his intelligence, that it can accomplish salvation, real salvation. This is why God said the wise men must be made ignorant before He teaches them. The wisdom of the world is useless to God and the salvation of souls. Paul told us to preach the gospel instead of our own wisdom. "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." Galatians 1:10 If man preaches with their own wisdom the only thing they will change is the gospel. God said "Preach the word..." 2 Timothy 4:2 Folks the word of God is more powerful than any wisdom that man may have about them, they need to convince themselves that Gods word is truth and man's words are lies. They have churches full of lost people because they have changed the truth into a lie and changed the gospel from a God saving tool to a decision or choice man makes. They preach that God cannot change man's will when the truth is mankind will never change his own will. Romans 3:11 "There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God." If one preached the word and not their own intelligence the churches may be smaller, the salvations may be less but it will be in truth and not a lie, and God will save sinners rather than people making false commitments. I know what I preach is truth because I know that I preach by the authority of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 61:1 "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek..."

For Our Weekly Meditation: God’s Bottle Of Tears:“Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?” (Psalm 56:8) “I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.” (Ps. 6:6) Tears are prompted by many things. One could cut an onion and bring forth tears. One could be full of laughter to the point of bringing forth tears. There are many situations that can bring forth tears and some folks can shed tears at a moment’s notice. Thus, when we study the Scriptures there must be discernment as to just what sort of tears are collected in God’s bottle, not just any tear that falls is caught in the hand of the Father and gently placed in His precious collection. The Father chooses certain and particular tears that are shed because of that Wicked one’s afflictions upon His dear children in the course of their service and obedience to Him. Job, no doubt, poured forth a multitude of tears throughout the torments of Satan’s onslaught. His suffering as a righteous and faithful man brought forth precious tears for the Father’s bottle. Yet, in another course of holy service we notice: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” (Ps. 126:6) This weeping is not because of one’s own afflictions, but through the love of Christ he is tormented over the lost state of others’ eternal souls. Nonetheless, in both cases the foundational cause of the tears is the spiritual relationship of the individual with the Father. In our text of Ps. 56:8 the word “tellest” means to inscribe in a book or to record. The word “wanderings” is in reference to an aimless drifting of one in exile or as a fugitive. From this the children of God, who are in the world but not of the world and are on a pilgrimage to a heavenly Jerusalem, understand that the Father inscribes in His book a complete record of every moment of their lives, which will be opened as they stand before Him in the End of Days to come. God has also bottled up every tear relative to the believers’ relationship to Him, both in the negative and in the positive. By this we know the Father places a high value upon holy tears shed by His beloved ones. Not one spirit-filled tear is ever spilled upon the ground; God snatches it up in a treasure bottle. By: Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.