"Things You Should Know" - Brett Pharr - 06/08/2022 - 6:30pm

Good evening, glad to see each one of you here tonight. We especially want to welcome our visitors. Thank you for being here, so glad that you could be with us to share in our summer series. And Andy Conley is going to be introducing our speaker in just a moment. But want to encourage our visitors, if you don't mind, please fill out one of the cards, the visitor cards. We'd love to have a record of your visit with us, and you can just leave that in the pew and that can be collected later. We have a few announcements for this evening. We first of all want to extend our sympathy to the family of Melody Capshaw, who passed away on Monday. Visitation will be held on Sunday, June 12th, from noon till 2 PM, and the funeral will follow at 2 PM. This will all be held at the Rogers Funeral Home in Jasper, Tennessee. On our hospital list, we have at St. Thomas West, Danielle Wisdom, the fiancee of Peyton Crotty. She is in room 580. Let's remember her in our prayers. MD Anderson in Houston on Monday, and prayers are requested. Please remember also in your prayers our youth group mission team that left this morning to go to Cherokee, North Carolina. We received word this afternoon that they had arrived safely, and so we're grateful for that. And they'll be helping with the vacation Bible school in Cherokee this week. And we remind you of the Diana singing that will be this Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30 each evening. And those of you that enjoy good singing would certainly appreciate the good singing at Diana. Thank you again for being here, and visitors especially, we welcome you to our service tonight. Now we'll join in worship. We'll sing two songs before we are led in prayer by Gary Finley.

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, it is such a joy to be able to come before you, knowing that you hear us, understand us, that you know us better than we do ourselves. We thank you, Father, how you guide our paths and help us, even when we think we know what we should be doing, that you will guide us correctly in that. Father, we're thankful also for Brett Farr tonight, that you'll be with him and help him to recall the things he's prepared and especially to teach and preach the things that you want him to say, so that we can be uplifted as a whole. Father, we are mindful of those that are sick and need your prayers, Danielle Wisdom and Paula Carruthers. And we're mindful also of Melody Capshaw. It doesn't seem possible that she could be not with us any longer. I pray for her family that everything will go well as they prepare all of the arrangements. Father, we pray for our youth group, that all will go well with them and everyone will be able to come back safe and there will be no problems in that. Finally, we pray for our leadership, not only here in America but also abroad, that you protect those in Ukraine, especially the members of our church there, that you'll be with Formosa to protect them, Israel, and other countries that are having difficulty to protect their faithful. Help us again tonight to be uplifted, Father, in every way, always remember you and praise you in everything we do. In Jesus' name, amen.

We had a situation arise yesterday afternoon. Our speaker, John McMath from just north of Birmingham, called and he said, 'You might not want me up there tomorrow. I have received a positive COVID test.' No, we don't want you up here tomorrow. And we'll have him back hopefully sooner than later. John is a good friend and he's doing okay. I checked on him and he's doing okay. Our speaker comes from not as far as Birmingham. He comes from about 15 minutes from here, but he wasn't always from here. Brett Farr is our speaker, and he agreed on very short notice to be with us. We're grateful for that. Brett and his wife are members of the Concord Road congregation, where he does a lot of teaching, does some preaching as well as needed there on occasion and elsewhere. And he always has, he comes out of a family of preaching. They've been here since 2019. Brett has made a great career in the banking business. He is the Chief Executive Officer of a large and profitable bank. He spent many years in North Carolina in that industry. He's been on the board of Freed-Hardeman University for 21 years now, I think maybe 22. He chaired that board for many years. He stays on that board now. This is a highly respected individual for many reasons: his competency in his business life, his competency in his family life, and his personal life. And we had him here for his competency in his teaching and preaching life, and we're glad that he's here on short notice. He not only agreed to come, but he gave quite an intriguing picture to me of what he intends to say. And I'm grateful for the topic, and I think it'll benefit all ages as he's going to help us connect the dots, as he put it on the phone with me yesterday, regarding the scheme of redemption start to finish. And we need to know that. We need to know it for our own confidence, for our own remembrance, and we need to know that to be able to talk to other people about that. How well would we do with that without a refresher from time to time? I think this will be beneficial for you, and we're grateful again for Brett being here. Please afterwards, as you get a chance, thank him for coming. Thank you for coming on short notice, Brett.