The Baptist Visitor, September 26, 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) September 26, 2017 Charles Cutney (Minister of Encouragement)
**At all three Worship Services
this Sunday, October 1…
…we’ll be sharing
the Bread and the Cup!**
Here are some basic facts about our Celebration of the Lord’s Supper:
After the Singing and the
Preaching at our 8:30AM,
11:00AM and 6:30PM
Worship Services…
…one of our Deacons will bring an
introduction to the Lord’s Supper—one
that will help to prepare our hearts and
minds for a special time of Remembering
both the precious Sacrifice of our Lord
and what that Sacrifice means to every
Born-again Believer in Jesus Christ.
We do this Lord’s Supper Observance
on the first Lord’s Day of every other
month—in other words, the first Sundays
of October, December, February, April,
June and August every year.
We ask you to pray and prepare your
heart to make each of these Lord’s
Supper times a very Spirit-filled time of
love and commitment—commitment to
Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, and
commitment to our Fellow-servants of
God as being “One in Him”!
NOTE: We’re not “Closed
Communionists”!
In other words, we don’t ask to see your
“Spiritual ID” before you can share in the
Communion Service. We trust your
commitment to Jesus Christ and your love
for your fellow-servants, and we invite you to
partake as the Lord leads you to do so!
OUR RECORD SPEAKS September 17, September 24, 2017
8:30AM Worship Attendance 32 / 17
9:45AM Bible Study / Sunday School Attendance 23 / 24
11:00AM Worship Attendance 30 / 26
6:30PM Worship Attendance 16 / 30
Budget Offering **$1,740.65 / $4,707.30
(** “2016” Budget Offering Goal**$2,603.46)
Benevolence $00 / $20.00
Children's Ministry 00 /00
First Family Friends Who Will Celebrate a Birthday or a Wedding
Anniversary During the Month of October
03 Summer Briley
05-David Cutney Sr.
09- Jazzmine Parsons
13- Joy2 Tortal
17- Naty Maldonado
20- Joseph Jackson
23- Bettie O’Dell
28- Jalynn Dixon
29- Genesis Collins

2. “Confession”
September 26, 2017
Article #9 of “What is ‘Revival,’
and how does it happen?”
There is an excellent way for us to
remember the “ingredients” of prayer—it is the word
“A.C.T.S.”! This stands for “Adoration, Confession,
Thanksgiving and Supplication.” In other words, every
time we come before God to pray—whether for Revival,
or for the needs of our family, or for healing, etc.—our
prayer should contain all four elements. The reason we
need a simple reminder like this is that, most of the time
at least, we seem to head right for “Supplication,” and
our prayers turn into one huge “Gimme List!”
“You know, Pastor Chuck, I believe you’re
right. But do you mean that we need to spend several
minutes Adoring, Confessing and Thanking before we
can even begin to let our needs be known to the Lord?”
The issue is really not how long any part of our
prayers is. During my early-morning sessions, the
biggest part of my time is taken up with intercessory
praying—but I do my best to remember to begin the
hour by focusing my attention on worshiping and
thanking the Lord, and confessing my shortcomings to
Him (and receiving his forgiveness, of course...) as an
introduction to the intercession.
The point is that, while we’ve spent a good deal
of time in this series focused on the way we are to
worship and adore the Lord, it’s about time we did some
work in the “Confession” area.
Let’s review our “core verse”: 2 Chronicles 7:14
(NIV): “...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.” Now
look at what 1 John 1:5-10 (NLT) has to say about the
whole matter of confession (it’s a lengthy passage, but
we need to get the whole context of “confession”):
“This is the message he has given us to announce to
you: God is light and there is no darkness in him at all.
So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God
but go on living in spiritual darkness. We are not living
in the truth. But if we are living in the light of God's
presence, just as Christ is, then we have fellowship with
each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us
from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are only
fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. But if
we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to
forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong. If we
claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and
showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”
Let’s first of all look at the word “confess.” It is
“oJmologevw” (“homolo-GEH-oh”) in the Greek. The
word means, according to Thayer’s Lexicon, “...to say
the same thing as another, i.e. to agree with, assent...”
In other words, God says that we have sinned, and in
response, we humbly agree with Him, and acknowledge
that we have. (NOTE: Next week’s article will focus on
“conviction,” which is God’s way of—quite
unmistakably—bringing our sin[s] to our attention!)
A. First of all, we are to confess our sins to GOD
(and forsake them, of course!):
“Please excuse me, Pastor Chuck, but haven’t you
told us over and over that, when we receive Jesus as our
Savior and Lord, ALL OUR SINS are FORGIVEN??”
Of course.
“Then why does He turn around and tell us that we
need to confess them? I just don’t understand!”
Let me explain:
1. All of our sins ARE FORGIVEN (positionally) the
moment we repent and receive Jesus as our Savior
and Lord. “Positionally” means that Christ died for
our sins, and His blood covers them, so it is as if we
are (positionally) already in Heaven, enjoying
unbroken fellowship with Him...
2. ...BUT we are walking in a very sinful, corrupt
world, and so we need to EXPERIENCE God’s
forgiveness for the sins we may commit from day to
day! (“Give us our food for today, and forgive us
our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have
sinned against us.”—Matthew 6:11-12 [NLT]) This
has nothing to do with our eternal salvation!
B. After that, we MAY need to confess them to other
people!
1. “Private sin, private confession;”
In other words, we need to confess our sins only to those
who are aware of them. Here are Christ’s words
regarding private confession from the Sermon on the
Mount—Matthew 5:23-24 (NLT): “...if you are standing
before the altar in the Temple, offering a sacrifice to
God, and you suddenly remember that someone has
something against you, leave your sacrifice there beside
the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then
come and offer your sacrifice to God.” (NOTE: On the
other hand, if no one is aware of your sin, you need only
to confess to God.)
2. “Public sin, public confession!”
This is a tough one. Sometimes we “lose it,” and end up
doing something outlandish and/or ungodly, and several
people are aware of it. As soon as we realize what we’ve
done, we’re confronted with a choice—we can either (a)
act as if nothing happened, or (b) acknowledge that we
have indeed done something really stupid, and ask for
forgiveness from those who are aware of it—and yes,
that includes even asking unbelievers for their pardon!
“After doing all of that, do we still have to ask GOD
to forgive us??”
Of course we do—and the reason for this is that God
wants to bless us more than we want to be blessed, and
by opening ourselves fully to Him, in total and complete
surrender, we put ourselves in the position to receive
those wonderful spiritual blessings!