Pastor Symps leads us in a study of all five expressions of the Great Commission, in the four Gospels and Book of Acts - how can your personal testimony fulfill the Christly command foreach of us to spread the Gospel? We also compare this with how the woman at the well showed her faith and witness after she met Jesus. How did she share her story? (John 4)

We are in the third of our series on being a "Faithful Witness". Today, Pastor Ryan concentrate on the empowering work and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We see and hear how, Biblically, our Jesus was empowered by the Spirit of God, to resist trials and temptations from the enemy, and to proclaim the great Gospel of salvation to all who would believe. And for us, the Holy Spirit works mightily to transform our inner being for holiness, and works mightily to prepare us for outer work. Scripture for today includes Luke Ch. 3 and 4, Romans 8 and Galatians 4.

Part 2 of our Fall semester series focuses on our Savior Jesus being the Faithful Witness of God the Father. Pastor Ryan concentrates on passages from John and II Corinthians, emphasizing the truth that Jesus, God in the flesh, the Eternal Word, always bore witness to the kingdom of God, fulfilling prophesy not only by *being* the Messiah but by also doing the *work* of the Messiah!

Pastor Ryan starts us off on our new semester series, "Faithful Witness".

Today, we begin with Lesson #1. We study Scripture passages citing God's initiative and divine purpose to reach out to His creation and declare His Glory and message, and for us to deliver the Gospel Truth to all who would hear.

Passages from Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and I Peter are explored.

Today, we hold a special service of prayer and worship, especially praying for our Lord to bless our small Group leaders and hosts. Corporate prayer is held, along with special devotionals from Pastors Ryan and Symps on the spiritual journey of faithful witnessing (our semester subject for this Fall).

The service follows the exhortation found in I Peter 4:7-11.

We look again at Colossians 2:6-10. We are reminded by Pastor Ryan of who we are grounded in, to Whom our deep roots are anchored into: our Lord Jesus, declared by Scripture to be fully God, fully man! He is Who we follow, the One who teaches us what is true and right, and by following Him we are protected from the vain wisdoms and thoughts and distractions of this world - "faithfulness, always" in Him!

Pastor Ryan enjoins us I a short series to instruct and exhort us to unwavering faithfulness in Christ. How do we stand for our Lord, our truth, when so much in this world can distract, dissuade or despair us? The answer is in deep roots in our Christ Jesus. Hebrews 11:32-40 and Colossians 2:6-12 are the Scripture passages for today.

Pastor Symps returns to the pulpit to finish our short study in the little letter of Philemon.

We concentrate on vs. 8-25, where, as Symps explains, Paul presents to Philemon the encouragement to forgive the debt of Onesimus, and Paul himself, offering the propitiation, making this solution an archetype of Christ's work on the cross for us - we, slaves of rebellion, needing forgiveness and reconciliation to God, having our debt paid by our Savior Jesus Christ!

Pastor Symps leads us through an impassioned exhortation on verses 1-7 of this precious little letter from Paul that demonstrates the atoning work of Jesus, through the instruction of an act of determined forgiveness.

Included in the beginning of the sermon is a broadcast of an overview of Philemon as authored by "The Bible Project" - this can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aW9Q3Jt6Yvk

Pastor Ryan revisits this "little book", this letter from Paul to Titus, exhorting Titus to keep his church following the true Truth, and to lead lives that exemplify their knowledge of this Christly truth. Pastor Ryan sharpens the hope that is indelibly linked to honoring this Truth by comparing it to a review of the futility as expressed in Ecclesiastes. There, all is "Hevel" (vapor), meaningless - but in Christ, His Truth brings hope! Eternal hope!