First Look at April 29

Here's a first look at tomorrow's bulletin and worship
FREEDOM BAPTIST CHURCH
April 29, 2012
Church News
We will have a representative from the Gideons here on May 20th
Mother’s Day is coming up May 13th; Father’s Day is June 17th
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Today’s Teachings
Sunday School: Dueling Denominations (started study April 24 last year)
Churches of Christ
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Today’s Sermon
Trampolining through John - Section 4, chapters 9-12
The Blind and the Lost: Jesus the Light and the Shepherd
John 9:25-10:10
John 9 with John 10
Spiritual sight vs. blindness on the part of the blind man healed in ch. 9 and blindness of the religious leaders
Chapter 10 a transition from blindness to the ability to hear the shepherd call his sheep into the safety of the sheepfold (which contrasts spiritual hearing vs. spiritual deafness)
The parable of the door of the sheep pen illustrated the open invitation to the nation to follow His guidance and be saved; all they had to do was hear His call to go into the door of the sheep pen and they would be safe in His care as the Good Shepherd
The blind man received sight and found his way; the Pharisees were blind and deaf and lost. Jesus had just ushered in the previously rejected blind man into the kingdom of God sheepfold
The Pharisees had also “put out” the blind man for his insolence in daring to defy their spiritual leadership; they thought they were sending the man out of the sheep pen but instead they sent him into the arms of Jesus where he was safe and sound
This “discourse” (speech on a particular topic) of Jesus started in chapter 9 and continued to 10:21. The setting did not change and the incident was one continuous flow
Jesus came to give abundant life, not death
• The doctrine of the Pharisees yielded spiritual starvation, bondage and death
• Through Christ is freedom and life, and taken care of by a loving shepherd
• Abundant life
 “Shall go in and out” – Freedom to be sheep and do what sheep do, without interference from “wolves”
 “And find pasture” – Be free of the worry and anxiety of not having needs met
 “He shall be saved” – To be afraid of nothing, that we don’t have to be afraid of anything but disobeying (for sheep are naturally afraid and “skittish”)
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WORSHIP SERVICE
I Will Sing the Wondrous Story p. 508
Great is the Lord  p. 31
Scripture Reading
I will give thanks to the LORD for His righteousness. I will sing the praises of the name of the LORD Most High. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. You have set your glory in the heavens. Ps. 7:17; 8:1-2 NIV
"How Great Thou Art" was based on a Swedish poem written by Carl Boberg (1859–1940) in 1885. The melody is a Swedish folk song. It was translated into English by British missionary Stuart K. Hine, who added two verses.
The inspiration for the poem came when Boberg was walking home from church near Kroneback, Sweden, and listening to church bells. A sudden awe-inspiring storm caught him and then just as suddenly subsided to a peaceful calm over Monsteras Bay. When Boberg arrived home, he opened the window and saw the bay like a mirror before him. From the woods on the other side of the bay, he heard the song of a thrush. The church bells were tolling in the quiet evening. It was this series of sights, sounds, and experiences that inspired the song, first published in 1886.
Stuart Hine first heard the Russian translation of the song in 1931 and wrote the English paraphrase “How Great Thou Art.” Other versions of the song appeared in the 1950’s and 1960’s because of its popularity. One of these versions is “O Mighty God” which was an attempt to portray the original translation of the song, but Hine’s version is the most popular.
Elvis Presley won Sacred Music Grammy’s for his recordings of the song in 1967 and 1974 (for the live version). Billy Graham chose the song to be the theme of his crusade in Madison Square Garden in 1957, performed hundreds of times by George Beverly Shea.
How Great Thou Art p. 4
O Mighty God, When I Behold the Wonder
(To the tune of How Great Thou Art)
Offering