July 25, 2021 Ferguson Avenue Baptist Church 10050 Ferguson Avenue ❖ Savannah, Georgia 31406

Where Christ Is Exalted and the Fellowship Is Exciting Announcements Masks Only in Organ Side Overflow Room

Quarterly Congregational Meeting & Evening Worship Our next quarterly congregational meeting will be this afternoon, Sunday, July 25, at 5:45 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. Evening Worship will follow at 7:00 p.m.

Wednesday Night Activities Join us this Wednesday, July 28, at 7:00 p.m. Bob will teach his study of Romans in the sanctuary. The Youth will meet in the OBWM. Children’s Music Camp meets in the Fellowship Hall.

Senior Saints’ Bible Study Tom’s Senior Adult Bible Study will meet Thursday, July 29, at 10:00 a.m. in the Fel- lowship Hall.

Children’s Camp Older Children’s Camp this summer will be a day camp here at the church, from Thurs- day to Saturday, July 29-31. Pray for the kids and workers!

Volunteer Opportunities Now that Covid restrictions are pretty much behind us, we are adding back events and activities that were suspended during the pandemic. One of these is the Sunday School fellowship time at 9:00 a.m. We need volunteers! You’d need to come in no later than 8:30 a.m., make coffee, and set out any goodies that are available. Then clean up after- wards. If you would like to help with setup and cleanup for this once-popular activity, call the office at 355-0949 and let Dawn or Tom know! If you can think of something else we haven’t added back into the schedule, let us know that, too!

Next D-Group Session Starting Soon! Sunday, August 1, starts Launch Week for the next D-Group Series, Faith, Part 2 (F2). This is a simple sermon series, with no books to buy or read. If you are interested in joining a group, women may talk to Jessica Dimmitt, Savannah Martin, or Emily Wise. Interested men may speak with Robert Holland. continued on p. 4

FABC Elders Bob Dimmitt Tom Keller Church Phone: Senior Pastor Assoc. Pastor/Senior Adults 912-355-0949 912-398-4363 912-308-3767 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.fabchurch.com

July 25, 2021

Welcome and Announcements

Call to Worship Psalm 47:1-2 Pew Bible p. 472

Hymn #13, bulletin p. 6 “Praise Ye the Lord, the Almighty”

Prayer of General Confession Tom Keller Romans 4:7-8 Pew Bible p. 941

Hymn #224, bulletin p. 7 “I Know Whom I Have Believed”

Scripture Reading Mark 14:66-15:5 Lance Ficek Pew Bible p. 852

Hymn, bulletin pp. 8-10 “Only a Holy God”

Message Bob Dimmitt Our Bodies & the Resurrection, Part 3 Romans 8:18-24, Pew Bible p. 944 1 Corinthians #108

Hymn, below “Doxology” Old Hundred Tune

Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below. Praise Him above, ye heavenly host, Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen

2 A.M. Notes

Our Bodies & the Resurrection, Part 3 1 Corinthians #108 Romans 8:18-24

The Apostles’ Creed

The Belgic Confession

Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England

Westminster Larger Catechism

London Baptist Confession 1689

Questions Regarding the Resurrection

How Should We Treat the Body?

Job 19:26

Will the Resurrection Body Be Recognizable?

Matt. 22:30

See supplemental information on page 11. 3 July: 25 Quarterly Congregational Meeting 5:45 p.m. 29-31 Children’s Camp

August: 1 D-Group Launch Week for F2 18 Children’s Choir Concert and Reception 7:00 p.m. 25 Suppers & Awana begin 5:45 p.m.

November: 14 Homecoming

December: 5 Visit from Carlos & Sandy Rios 8 Christmas Banquet

to our most recent new members! Moonyean Blanton Avalon DeLoach Lindsey Walker

4 You can help reach every home in our zip code with the Gospel

Saturate USA – Savannah, Georgia

Christ for all People began a campaign called Saturate USA. This is a God-sized vision to take the love of the Gospel to 120 million households by the end of 2027. The hope is to spark true repentance and re- vival in our beloved country. Please share this vi- sion with your friends and colleagues so that they can join this exciting movement. Our country needs to rediscover the message of the Gospel and we need to cry out in prayer for revival to sweep the land. United in love, and with God on our side, we can win America back to Christ.

How is this done? A church simply adopts a zip code or city to Saturate. FABC has adopted the zip code 31406. Basically a TEAM of 2 people can deliver 400 Saturation Packs in just 4 HOURS…and a TEAM of 25 people can deliver 5000 packs in just 4 HOURS.

What are in the packs? Saturate USA will provide and deliver all materials FREE of charge. Saturation Packs include: Door Hangers, Free Streaming, Free App, Multi-Language Jesus Film DVDs, Gospel Tracts and Adopted Area Maps. FABC has just received our materials.

What’s next? First: We need a few people who are interested in helping to coordinate the packing and distribution of these packets. If you are interested see Pastor Bob.

Secondly: we will need volunteers to come and put the materials in door hanger (bags or packets). We’ll have a date set and a signup sheet for this.

Thirdly: we’ll need teams (teams may consist of two people or as many as 20) or individuals who will distribute these packets door to door. Zip code 31406 has been divided into 30 smaller areas, a team can adopt one or more of these areas, several teams can team up to complete an area, then teams will go out and place a packet on each door of each home or apartment in their area. We’ll have signup sheets for this as well.

It’s a big project, it will not be done in one day, teams might want to dedicate one day a month for 2 or 3 months to help accomplish this. You may have friends who do not attend FABC who might be willing to help. However by working together we can ensure that all 14,000 households are reached.

5 6 7 8 9 10 Articles

he Apostles’ Creed has been with the church from almost the very beginning (in some form). It is a statement of belief that contains the important facets of T what Christians should hold as true. The Apostles’ Creed is not a statement to be made that guarantees a person salvation if they recite it, it is a condensed the- ological system that reflects what is right for a follower of Jesus Christ to believe. An early version of what later became the Apostles’ Creed, called the “Old Ro- man Creed,” was in use as early as the second century. The earliest written form of this creed is found in a letter that Marcellus of Ancyra wrote in Greek to Julius, the bishop of Rome, about AD 341. About 50 years later, Tyrannius Rufinus wrote a commentary on this creed in Latin. In it, he recounted the viewpoint that the apos- tles wrote the creed together after Pentecost, before leaving Jerusalem to preach. The title “Apostles’ Creed” is also mentioned about 390 by Ambrose, where he re- fers to “the creed of the Apostles which the Church of Rome keeps and guards in its entirety.”

The English version is as follows:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; He descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of the Father, and will come again to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body (flesh) and the life everlasting. Amen.

The Belgic Confession was originally written by a French-speaking, Reformed pas- tor, Guido de Brès, who had been a student of John Calvin in Geneva. Though de Brès was principal author of the Belgic Confession, other Reformed pastors and theologians contributed to the final, received form of the Confession. First written in 1561, copies of the Confession were sent to Geneva and other Reformed church- es for approval. ❖

11 I Was a Misunderstood Muslim: Common Misconceptions About Islam by Pastor Afshin Ziafat

Christians are called to be witnesses of Christ to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8). In our day, the ends of the earth are moving into our neighborhoods — at least for those of us in America and Europe. Muslims are emigrating to our cities in record numbers. Many of us don’t need to board a plane to take the gospel to the Muslim world. We only need to cross the street to our neighbor’s house. Unfortunately, many Christians are apprehensive about engaging a relationship or even a conversa- tion with Muslims. Some have a misperception that Muslims will not be friendly. Others are gripped with the fear of potentially offending Muslims by committing a cultural faux pas. Essentially, many are overcome by the fear of the unknown. I want to shed light on some common misconceptions that hin- der Christians from reaching out to Muslims with the saving truth of Christ.

Misconceptions About Muslims: The most common misconception about Muslims is that they are all radical terrorists filled with hatred for the West — or at least they are headed in that direction. The thought is that all Muslims ultimately want to see our society destroyed and Islamic Sharia law institut- ed throughout the land. Although there are movements of radical Islamic terrorists throughout the world, the vast majority of Muslims are among the more hospitable, gracious, and friendly people you will meet. Underlying this misunderstanding is the erroneous thinking that the more devout one gets as a Mus- lim, the more radical one becomes. Some think that the end of Christian devotion is to sell your pos- sessions and give it all to the poor, while the end of Muslim devotion is to become a jihadist. Although there are terrorist organizations who have deceived their followers into believing this, the vast majority of Muslims fall into another category: the dutiful religious Muslim. The term Islam means “submission to Allah,” and Muslim means “one who submits to Allah.” Islam is primarily a works-based religion, and for most Muslims, to be devout is to give oneself wholly to follow the five pillars of faith and submit to Allah.

Misconceptions About Our Calling : Another misconception that we must acknowledge has to do with our calling and purpose as Christians. It might be better stated as a forgotten identity and mission. This came to light during the recent Syrian refugee crisis, when many American Christians primarily were thinking about border protection and safety instead of the opportunity for advancing the kingdom of God. This is not to say that safety and protection should not be on our minds at all. As a husband and father, I desire safety and peace in our country. But as an ambassador for Christ, I cannot let that desire squeeze out or nullify the greater desire to see people from all nations come to saving faith in Jesus. In Acts 20:24, Paul states that his own life is not more valuable to him than the ministry God gave him to testify to the gospel of grace. For us today, engaging our Muslim neighbors in order to witness to the gospel is not even a matter of life and death. But it may mean sacrificing comfort. I fear that, too often, we don’t even want to get out of our comfort zones. I recently heard about a community where some were upset because an Islamic association wanted to build a cemetery in their town. Some were against the initiative because they felt it would lead to more Muslims moving to their community. In- stead of celebrating an open door to engage Muslims with the gospel, they wanted to stop it. The goal of Christians is not to preserve or extend our temporal comforts, or even our lives, at all costs. The goal of Christians should be instead to spend every day of our lives serving the mission of testifying to all nations.

Muslims’ Misconceptions: It is also important to note that Muslims have many misconceptions about Christianity. Most Muslims don’t understand our view of the Trinity, and wrongly assume that Christians 12 worship three Gods. The sonship of Jesus is a stumbling block for them because many mistakenly take it to mean that God had sexual relations with Mary. Muslims also view Christianity primarily through the lens of Western society. In the Muslim world, Islam is woven into every fabric of society so that the religion’s value is reflected in the culture. Therefore, some Muslims have a hard time accept- ing the claims of Christ because they see the vices in our society and wrongly attribute them to Christi- anity. It is important to dispel all these misunderstandings, but I want to highlight one misconception in particular that shows the importance of engaging your Muslim neighbor. Many Muslims think that the biblical doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone is absurd. They view it as a cheap grace. They think Christianity essentially means saying a prayer to believe in Jesus, and then living however you want because you have been forgiven. They ask, “Then why would you live for God? Why would you do anything for God?” With that question, they admit that they believe the only reason someone would live for God is fear. The motive is to earn God’s favor, or else I’m going to go to hell. But what if there’s a better way? The Bible is clear that grace does not lead to freedom to sin, but rather to freedom to truly live for God (Romans 6:15–18). A true Christian will produce good works, but his good works will not be a means to earning salvation. Rather, they will be a product of his salvation — or better put, evidence of his salvation. The Scripture teaches in James that “faith apart from works is dead” (James 2:26). Chris- tians do not live for God out of fear of going to hell, because we understand that our place in heaven is already secured by the blood of Christ.

While We Were Yet Sinners: Now we can see why it is so important to engage, befriend, and love our Muslim neighbors. The greatest misconception in the Muslim mind relates to the unmerited and sacrifi- cial love of the true God. In Islam, you earn God’s favor through a life of good works, submitting to the will of Allah. Islam teaches that there will be a day of judgment when Muslims will face a scale that weighs all their good deeds against their bad deeds. Whichever one outweighs the other will determine whether they go to heaven or hell. But Christianity teaches that God loved us and sent his Son to die for our sins while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8) and before we did anything good to deserve it (Ephesians 2:8–9). This is the love that Muslims need to experience. And this is where you come in. We love Muslims by inviting them into our homes for dinner. We love Muslims by asking them how we can help them in getting assimilated to our community — for example, by helping them set up a bank account, sign up their kids for school, or whatever else it may be. Before a Muslim cares to know what you believe, he often wants to know that you care. When we love Muslims without seeking anything in return, especial- ly when they expect us to ostracize them, we make Jesus visible to them and put the gospel on full display (1 John 4:7–12).

Once a Muslim: My family moved back to the States when I was 6 because of the unrest in Iran due to the revolution. Shortly after coming to America, the Iranian hostage crisis hit. A group of Americans were held hostage in Iran, and it was not easy for my family to live in Houston. Many people persecut- ed us because they knew my family was from Iran. I’m so thankful for one Christian lady who did not see my family as a threat, but as an opportunity to advance the gospel. My Christian tutor loved me and met a real need in my life by teaching me the English language. She did this during a time when others threw bricks through the windows of our home or threatened to beat up my brother and me. Had any other American given me the NT, I would’ve thrown it away, because I didn’t trust many Americans then. But I’m thankful it came from the one who was showing me the love of Christ in her actions. Since it came from her, I held on to the NT that I would read years later and that would lead me to faith in Christ. I am eternally blessed that I get to know Christ and be a part of making him known. There is no way I would be in this place if it were not for a second-grade tutor who was determined to invest in my life. I believe there are many more Muslims like me in your community. I pray that you will be obedient to Jesus as he calls you to invest in the life of a Muslim in your path for the sake of the gospel. ❖ 13

Missionary of the Week

Kendra Stanford World Horizons - Liverpool, England

“Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.” Hebrews 13:1-3

Over the past couple of months as COVID restrictions have lifted, we’ve been able to welcome our refugee and asylum seeker friends back into our building! It’s been amazing to have opportunities to serve this community through English classes, Coffee and Conversation clubs, by collecting and distributing clothing and household items as well as monthly food packages! In addition to opening our building as a support space for these communities, we’ve also had the opportunity to get to know some of them through a picnic at the park! It’s been great to be able to serve the community in ways as simple as a tea or coffee as we welcome friends in to practice their English. In a couple of weeks we are launching an art gallery in our building! It will be another avenue to welcome in the community and build deeper relation- ships with those we work alongside to support.

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for us as we continue welcoming and supporting the refugee and asylum seeker community in our area. Pray for deep and meaningful friend- ships and for love and care to be shown to them in a way that reflects Christ’s love and opportunities for Spiritual impact within the communities we work in. • Please pray for our BAM team as we continue meeting with and supporting business owners within our company who are working in various locations and encouraging them in their businesses and community impact. • Please be praying for our team and the community members we welcome here in our building. For the past couple of weeks COVID cases have been spread- ing in our area so please pray for safety and protection for our team, staff mem- bers and the students and community members who come to our building on a weekly basis.

14 Nursery July 25 Bible Reading Schedule 10:30 A.M. Babies: July 2021 Lisa & Addisyn Rowe Toddlers - 4 yr olds: 1 1 Kings 10-12 Jimmy & Tammy Kicklighter 2 1 Thessalonians

Nursery August 1 3 1 Kings 13-15 10:30 A.M. 4 1 Thessalonians Babies: Carolyn Blanton, Cindy Wise 5 1 Kings 16-18 Toddlers - 4 yr olds: 6 1 Thessalonians Amy Keller, Myri Hymon 7 1 Kings 19-22 • Please pray for us as we launch a 8 1 Thessalonians new art gallery as another way to 9 2 Kings 1-4 connect with our community! Pray for protection from Covid infections 10 1 Thessalonians leading up to the event and for great 11 2 Kings 5-8 conversations to be had during the event and over the next few months 12 1 Thessalonians the work will be on display. 13 2 Kings 9-12

Thank you so much for your ongoing 14 1 Thessalonians prayers, financial support and encourag- 15 2 Kings 13-17 ing messages! It’s great to hear from many of you through email or text and 16 1Thessalonians it’s encouraging to be able to share what 17 2 Kings 18-20 God is doing within our community here in Liverpool. I wouldn't be able to be 18 1Thessalonians serving here without your partnership 19 2 Kings 21-25 and I very much appreciate your ongoing support! 20 1 Thessalonians 21 Lamentations 1-3 Kendra Stanford 22 1 Thessalonians 23 Lamentations 4-5 24 1 Thessalonians 25 Deuteronomy 1-4 26 1 Thessalonians 27 Deuteronomy 5-9 28 1 Thessalonians 29 Deuteronomy 10-14 30 1Thessalonians 15  31 Deuteronomy 15-19 This Week at FABC

Today Sunday School 9:30 a.m. Morning Worship 10:30 a.m. Quarterly Congregational Meeting 5:45 p.m. Evening Worship 7:00 p.m. Monday D-Group (Women’s) 10:00 a.m.

Tuesday D-Group (Men’s and Women’s groups) 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday Children’s Music Camp 7:00 p.m. Youth 7:00 p.m. Bible Study 7:00 p.m. Thursday Senior Saints’ Bible Study 10:00 a.m. D-Group (Women’s) 6:00 p.m. Older Children’s Camp - Thursday through Saturday

Sunday School Classes & Descriptions Adult “Psalms” Fellowship Hall: Bob Dimmitt/Chris Leverett “Genesis” Olde Bishop Wade Manse: Steve Posner

Children & Students Babies Room 3: Kay Stanford & Saundra Bridges Toddlers & PreK Room 25: Emily Wise & Kamee Roberson/ Michael & Ruth Kleinpeter K, 1st & 2nd Grade Room 200: John & Pam Humphrey 3rd-6th Grade Boys Room 202: Ric Zittrouer, Richie Mills 3rd-6th Grade Girls Room 204: Mary Ann Fowler, Amy Horton Youth Guys Room 206: Bobby DeLoach, Shawn Champion Youth Girls Room 208: Jessica Dimmitt

Lockup Deacons for July: Ron Fowler, Jimmy Kicklighter Lockup Deacons for August: Michael Kleinpeter, Napoleon Martin

If you have any questions concerning the message from today, or are interested in obtaining information about church membership, please see any of the pastors after the service, drop a note in the offering plate indicating your desire to talk with a pastor, or call the church office.  Video and audio recordings of the messages are available for listening or downloading from www.fabchurch.com/sermons 16