Menu for Family Night

Marinated Pork Loin, Permanent Coleslaw
Brown Rice, Rolls, Cake Bars

---

On Thursday, March 21, we will give out popcorn and cookies during the movie shown to the community during the Fire Ant Festival. This is a great time for us to embrace and interact with our community. Please let Jonathan know if you can make cookies to be given out. You will need to have the cookies at the church on Wednesday, March 20th, before family night so that we can package them.

We also need volunteers to help distribute popcorn and cookies at Heritage Park from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. Let Jonathan know if you can help with part or all of this time.

---

---

If your class would like to help with the luncheons
during the revival, please contact Vickie Brown.

---

Giving as of March 19, 2024

Budget for 2024 . . . . . . . .  $329,423.00
Tithes Needed to Date . . . . . $69,686.20
Received to Date . . . . . . . . . $53,370.96
Needed for weekly budget . . .  $6,335.06
Tithes Received this week . . . . $2,996.00

MID-WEEK DEVOTION

Don’t forget to check out Brother David’s Mid-Week Devotion in the book of Psalms. They are uploaded each Wednesday on the sermon page.

From Our Pastor

When we think about our Lord riding into Jerusalem, we usually think about the joy, celebration and excitement.  We often think of it as the high point of His earthly ministry.  What an incredible experience it had to have been!

But we should always remember that our Lord knew what was coming.  Even when the crowds were celebrating Him, He knew He would be betrayed, arrested, falsely tried, beaten, scourged, and crucified.  Amazingly, that is why He went to Jerusalem. The cross was not a tragic, unfortunate turn of events.  He went to Jerusalem to be crucified.  He had made this clear at the beginning of His ministry when He told Nicodemus that He would be lifted up like the serpent in Moses’ day (John 3:14).  The event and His words clearly point to His crucifixion.  The Lord Jesus came to Jerusalem to die on a cross.

 Why would the Son of God do such a thing?  First, The Lord Jesus went to the cross because religion cannot make us right with God.  In Hebrews 10, the inspired writer quoted Psalm 40 when he wrote, “Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have you taken pleasure in them…” (Hebrews 10:8).

Think of that!  All those sacrifices in the Old Testament never made a person right with God.  Not even the estimated 250,000 lambs sacrificed at Passover could make people right with God.  Those sacrifices and the entire Old Testament Law was given to show us that we can’t save ourselves by religion and to lead us to faith in the One who was illustrated by the Law (Galatians 3:19-24).  Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem to die upon a cross because religion cannot save us. 

Next, we see that the Lord went to the cross to be the sacrifice for our sins.  The writer of Hebrews continued to quote Psalm 40 when he wrote of our Lord, “…But a body You have prepared for Me…” (verse 5).   Verses 7 and 9 say, “…I have come to do Your will…”  Our Lord rode into Jerusalem to be the sacrifice for our sins.  When our Lord rode into Jerusalem, He knew He was on the way to the cross.  When He ate the Passover with His disciples, He knew it illustrated His sacrificial death (1 Corinthians 5:7).  Our Lord entered Jerusalem to be our sacrifice.

Last, our Lord went to the cross make us forever right with God.  His sacrifice of Himself did what all the Old Testament sacrifices could never do – pay for our sins and reconcile us to God.  Hebrews 10:10 says, “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”  Verse 12 says our Lord sat down at the right hand of God after He had offered Himself – showing that He had accomplished everything necessary for our salvation.  Verse 14 says, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.  Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem to die and rise again to make us forever right with God.

The most amazing aspect of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem was His knowledge and determination to die for us.  He was not blinded or carried away by the excitement and celebration.  He knew He would be rejected, betrayed, beaten, scourged, and crucified.  He knew all of that and came to go through it to save us.  What a wonderful, loving Savior!