Newsletter, 3/1/2021
2/28/2021 Sunday’s Sermon by Nick Perez
The Socially Distanced Table
For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.
1 Corinthians 11:26 ESV
***Join us at the church for a Drive-In Service 10:45, OR streaming on YouTube
Kingdom Come
The conflation of church and kingdom is unfortunate. By saying the church is the kingdom and the kingdom is the church, we end up writing and preaching absurd statements such as brother M. H. Tucker wrote in Introducing the Church of Christ in the chapter he wrote called “God’s Kingdom Was Established On Pentecost, 33 A.D.” He writes, “The kingdom of God is almost 2,000 years old.” I believe the Greek word for this is pronounced bologna. God’s kingdom is an “eternal kingdom” even as God Himself is eternal (2 Peter 1.11; Romans 16.26).
How can we say that the kingdom did not come or was not here while King Jesus was on earth? How obtuse and nearsighted is it to say that the King is here but His kingdom is not? Or that the King is here but His kingdom is yet coming? He’s arrived but His rule and reign are still a ways off. No, in fact, when Jesus shows up in the gospels He is bringing with Him and inaugurating His kingdom. The King is here. So is His rule and reign. “The kingdom of heaven is at hand.” In fact, you can reach out your hand and
touch the king. “The kingdom of heaven is near.” Yes, so near you can hear, see, look upon, and touch with your hands. Indeed, “the kingdom of God is among you” (Luke 17.21).
This is at the heart of the gospels. While we certainly glean the humanity and deity of Jesus, their primary point is to portray Jesus as King Yahweh come in the flesh, viz. as Jesus the Christ. We undermine the gospel when we talk about a 2,000-year-old kingdom, not to mention disagree with Scripture. Better to say we enter into the eternal reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when we bow the knee to King Jesus in humble obedience.
~Nick Perez
Online Resources
Fairmont Park Church of Christ (Midland, TX)
Live Streaming & Recorded Sermons & Bible Classes
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FPCOFC/
Website: https://www.fmpchurch.com/
App: (Apple & Android) Fairmont Park Church of Christ
*Children’s resources now available
The Christian Chronicle
The Christian Chronicle has compiled a list of Churches of
Christ nationwide offers live streaming services.
https://christianchronicle.org/churches-of-christ-offeringlivestream-worship/
“Let the Bible Speak” – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/LetTheBibleSpeak
Mourning the loss of loved ones
Joan Quinn – neighbor Naomi passed away following a miscarriage, leaving behind a husband & 2 small children
Gabriel Hall – Mitchell family of Stockton CoC mourning the loss of a murdered son
Recovering from Surgery
Tonya Barnard & Shannan
COVID-19
Michelle Ellis – mother-in-law Wanda
Lynn Albro – friend Anissa back in the hospital
Charles Cook
Battling Cancer
Lynn Albro – aunt Carmelita has stage 3 bladder cancer
Lyn Brocco – spot on lung has shrunk by 66%, continuing treatment
Brenda Smith – friend Judy has stage 4 cancer
Monte & Sharon Corley – daughter-in-law Mandy having surgery on March 8th
Cathy Dixon – sister-in-law Nancy
Jacqui Coulter – father, Gene Fisher’s lung cancer has spread
Patton Family – assistant high school basketball coach Leo Griggs
Mason – a teenager in Ripon
Sheila Walls
Grace Whited – 6-year-old at Murphys Church of Christ
Dee Rambo
Other Requests
Parkview residents displaced by fire – some have returned home
John Ford – neck surgery on March 8th
Melissa Shook – niece’s coworker’s 6 yr old son Carter undergoing tests
Barbara Jean Delasaux (one of the displaced Parkview residents) – sister Nancy hospitalized
Linda Russell – breathing problems
Joshua Patton – playing pro basketball in Ukraine
Krista Gray – brother Stan Chism recovering from a heart attack
Kari Laguna – leg improving; stimulator stopped working so headaches have returned
Julie Vergara – grandson Bryce having another bone scan earlier than planned, swollen lymph nodes
Eddie Vargas – Dora under Hospice care; Vicki’s sister-in-law is a front line worker & pregnant
Helen Potterf – Hospice care
Leadership / Essential Workers / Unemployed
