4401 BRECKENRIDGE LANE,LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY 40218SERVICES EVERY SUNDAY AT 9:00, 10:30 AND 12:00
The hymn, “Amazing Grace,” has reminded Christians since 1779 of the grace found in Christ to redeem from sin. In 2006, “Amazing Grace, My Chains are Gone” was written to remind Christians that freedom from the chains of sin is only found in Christ. I once was blind, but now I see! His grace is truly amazing!
What makes Good Friday “good”? What is beautiful about the cross? We look to a few Scriptures, including 1 Peter and the song Beautiful Scandalous Night to remind us what makes the death of Jesus mysteriously beautiful.
COMBINED COLLEGE AND SINGLES EVENT!!
Louisville Bats Baseball Game!
Date: August 10th
Time: Meet at 6:00 PM
Where: We will MEET AT THE FIELD, at the back gate closest to the river.
Total Cost: $10
Additional Details:
You MUST REGISTER AND PAY BEFOREHAND by clicking the link here.
The game starts at 6:30 PM, PLEASE MEET 30 minutes early (6:00 PM at the back gate closest to the river) in order to all enter together.
Reach out to Alexa Knight with any questions!
SINGLES GROUP
Information for Singles Ladies on KBC Women’s Conference:
Where: We will be attending the KBC Women’s Conference at Little Flock Baptist Church.
When: October 15th-16th.
Lodging: We will be lodging together in an old-school slumber party set up on Friday night.
Transportation: We will be taking the church bus to and from our accommodations as a group.
The deadline to register for this event and pay the $30 fee is August 15th!!! So, make sure to register and pay to reserve your spot!
The link to both register and pay can be found here.
COLLEGE GROUP
Dates: August 4th
Time: Wednesday Night at 7:00 PM
BIG NEWS/CHANGES FOR THE COLLEGE GROUP!!
Big News NAOBC College Group!! This fall we will be introducing College Night, Sundays from 6-8 pm. This will be taking the place of our weekly college small groups, so, instead of joining a small group this fall, we will just have one night all together for college night.
There will be supper (What??) every week, as well as games, fellowship, and a short lesson with smaller prayer groups to follow. This event is very fellowship-oriented and will offer a great opportunity for our college group to become closer and more connected as a whole. This night will also serve as a great opportunity to invite friends who are both believers and unbelievers!
The heart behind college night comes from wanting to promote unity within our college group and our college group within the church as a whole. This fall semester our church will be going through “Disciplines of a Godly Woman” and “Disciplines of a Godly Man” on Wednesday nights, and by eliminating college small groups during the week, this frees our college-aged students to one church event during the week, hopefully limiting busy nights in the midst of homework and work.
Our main desire this fall is to see an uprise in college students serving and investing in our church body as a whole, and our college group as a whole. It is our prayer that our college students will get to better know the rest of the church by coming to Wednesday night studies with different aged members or serving in a ministry. So, two nights this fall. Sunday nights are for our college night, and Wednesday night for the church as a whole! We can’t wait to see you all in the fall and are so excited for College Night!
Check out our website or GroupMe App for more info regarding specific events!!
Love the Ville is coming up on August 28th!
This is a church-wide event where all NAOBC members get to give back to the community and share the love of Christ through various service projects. We strongly encourage all College and Singles to mark this date off on your calendar and join in our day of “loving the Ville!”
Our Week in the Word segment this week comes from Isaac Reff, one of our Singles Group interns.
Matthew 6:1
Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise, you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
Our text for this week comes from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus’ first lengthy discourse in Matthew contains innumerable teachings of great value, but I want us to focus on the Lord’s Prayer. This prayer should not be ripped out of its original context; it is part of His teaching on the Christian’s life in secret, and it finds its place in between how a Christian is meant to give, and how he is meant to fast.
Each of the three sections (vs. 4, 6, and 18) are punctuated by this phrase, “And your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.” Jesus frequently condenses His teaching on a certain subject by giving us a summary of His main point in a closing statement. The repeated use of this phrase is meant to reveal something to us about our righteous activities: whether giving to the poor, fasting for days on end, or praying to our Father, above everything else, they must be performed before an audience of God alone, and not with an eye to garner praise from men. Matthew 6:1 has already set the stage for this and serves as His thesis statement for this passage.
What is the application then, to prayer? Why do we pray in secret, and what is it that we are meant to pray for?
The primary reason we pray in secret, noticed by God alone, is because these are the prayers He loves to answer. Our guilty and disbelieving consciences often have a hard time trusting that God will answer our prayers or that He will give us what we long for, but Jesus is telling us that if we pray according to God’s will and in the manner of His choosing, we will be abundantly rewarded. Matthew 7:7-12 explicitly clarifies, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the reward for prayer is a positive, good answer in accordance with what we asked for. When we pray for bread, our Father will not give us a stone – He will give us bread.
That much is straightforward; we pray in secret because the One who sees what is done in secret will truly give us what we ask of Him. If only we really believed this! Anxieties would melt away, fears would dissolve like snow in the noonday sun, and stress would dissipate like morning dew in the midst of a Southern summer. My friends, our problem is not only that we do not pray, as many preachers will tell us. Our problem is that we do not believe He will hear us.
To close, a brief word on what it is we should be praying for. Many of us are familiar with the various praying templates: ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication), PRAY, and so forth. They all have a tendency to place supplication, or making requests, at the bottom of our priorities in prayer. Instead, we are supposed to focus on who God is, how much He has done for us, and like topics, and then maybe if we have time, we’re allowed to smuggle in one or two prayers that we would really like to be answered.
Except that’s not exactly how Jesus is praying in the Lord’s Prayer, the model for all other prayers. He begins by focusing on the Father (as we should too) and who He is (the One in heaven), but the phrase, “Hallowed be Your name,” isn’t a bare statement: it’s a request. In the Greek, the verb for “Hallowed” is not in the indicative mood, the mood used to make an observation or statement of fact, but rather in the imperative. In this context, the verb takes on the force of a request. The very first thing Jesus does after opening His prayer is to make a request of the Father, specifically, that He would glorify Himself. Most of the other verbs are in the imperative as well; the whole prayer is one massive request for God to glorify Himself, provide, protect, advance His kingdom, and forgive.
The glory of God known is the single highest pleasure available to mankind. Nothing is more thrilling, more lovely, more delightful, more awe invoking, more sweet, and truly good than God’s excellencies.
So let us go to Him, and let us beseech Him to make Himself known to us. He loves to answer those kinds of prayers.
We need the Lord at all times and in all ways. Too many times, we wait until we run into problems or even full-on crisis mode. How differently might our lives look if we learn to abide more consistently in the Lord?
God is rich in mercy. We are sinners in need of mercy. How do we access that mercy? We can learn how to access God’s mercy from King David’s prayer of confession recorded in Psalm 51. Though our sins are many, his mercy is more!
Jesus Christ stands in the gap between God and sinners. For those to look to him in faith, he is their substitute and Savior. The song “Man of Sorrows” helps us think about these truths and sing praises to the God who saves.
COMBINED COLLEGE AND SINGLES EVENT!!
Louisville Bats Baseball Game!
Date: August 10th
Time: Meet at 6:00 PM
Where: We will MEET AT THE FIELD, at the back gate closest to the river.
Total Cost: $10
Additional Details:
You must register and pay beforehand by clicking the link here.
The game starts at 6:30 PM, PLEASE MEET 30 minutes early (6:00 PM at the back gate closest to the river) in order to all enter together.
Reach out to Alexa Knight with any questions!
SINGLES GROUP
Date: July 21st (last one of the summer)
Time: Wednesday Night at 7:00 PM
COLLEGE GROUP
Dates: August 4th
Time: Wednesday Night at 7:00 PM
Check out our website or GroupMe App for more info regarding events!!
Congratulations to Pastor Philip!!
This past Sunday, our church had the privilege of recognizing Philip Brown’s many years of faithful service to Ninth & O. He has been on staff for 15 years- 10 of those years as the College and Singles Pastor. Our College and Singles Groups are thankful for all his service and hard work!!
When you see him, please be sure to thank Philip for his many years of service and let him know how he has personally impacted you through the College and Singles Ministry.
Love the Ville is coming up on August 28th!
This is a church-wide event where all NAOBC members get to give back to the community and share the love of Christ through various service projects. We strongly encourage all College and Singles to mark this date off on your calendar and join in our day of “loving the Ville!”
Our Week in the Word segment this week comes from Dr. Howell. One of our College BFG Leaders.
Psalm 112
Psalm 112 is an excellent example of a wisdom psalm. It begins with the concept of blessedness (cf. Ps 1), fear of the Lord (cf. Prov 1:7; 9:10), and delighting in God’s commandments (cf. Ps 1 again). Verses 2-5 describe this wise person as mighty, upright, and prosperous (though not in a prosperity gospel kind of way). Verses 6-9 provide the ground for why the wise person is this way; “for…his heart is firm (v. 7b)…his heart is steady (v. 8a). Finally, verse 10 describes the wicked who will ultimately perish, a common theme in Proverbs and other related wisdom literature.
As we consider this overall concept of “wisdom,” I want to focus on Psalm 112:7 this week; “He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.”
Many of us shudder at the thought of bad news. We don’t want to hear that things are not going well or that some kind of difficulty has just been announced. It seems in our world today that everywhere we turn, we are getting bad news. We have largely become a pessimistic society that loves to dwell in the mire of bad news.
Psalm 112:7 teaches us that the blessed person, i.e. the person who flourishes in this harsh world, is not afraid of bad news.
It’s not that this wise person is oblivious to it or just ignores it. No, the wise person takes bad news into account, considers it, and then lives in light of it. However, this wise person is not afraid of it. Why? The next line answers this question; “his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord.” I would argue that the logic of this verse goes like this: The blessed/wise person is not afraid of bad news because his heart is firm by trusting in the Lord. In other words, the wise person shores up his or her confidence in the power of God such that no bad news can derail the firmness of his or her heart. “A mighty fortress is our God; a bulwark never failing!!!”
Indeed, bad news comes to us all, but the wise/blessed person has no need to fear because our God is a great King who gives strength to his people to endure every hardship. This kind of confidence in the power of God through Christ will give us firm hearts such that when bad news comes, we can rest securely in the arms of our Father rather than spiraling into despair.
As you walk your daily life this week, dwell on the goodness and kindness of God to you in Christ Jesus such that your confidence in his power to save bolsters your spiritual vitality. Do not fear the bad news; rather, receive it in the confidence of a firm heart, trusting in the Lord.
In this 2020 hymn, O Come, All You Unfaithful, we are reminded that the birth of Jesus is for all who are weary, broken, or bitter. We all struggle; however, we find our rest, hope, and salvation in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ is born for you.
The overwhelming theme of all of Scripture is the faithfulness of God – from creation through the history of Israel through the early church and all the way to the promise of Christ’s return, we can see.
Love the Ville is coming up on August 28th!
This is a church-wide event where all NAOBC members get to give back to the community and share the love of Christ through various service projects. We strongly encourage all College and Singles to mark this date off on your calendar and join in our day of “loving the Ville!”
July 18th Celebration!
Mark your calendars for July 18th. This Sunday evening, we will have Building Community Night as well as a time of celebrating and giving thanks to God for several staff members who have reached milestones this year in their service to God and Ninth & O.
SINGLES GROUP
Quick Look at Summer 2021
Date: July 21 (last one of the summer)
Time: Wednesday Night at 7:00 PM
THIS SATURDAY (July 17th) FOR SINGLES!!!
Event: Mammoth Cave Hike
Meet: At church
Time: 8:30 AM (departure time from church)
Cost: $18 per person
Further Details:
Carpoolers who can drive some people from church to Mammoth Cave are appreciated! If you’re able, please come ready to drive a few friends!!
We will grab lunch around the Mammoth Cave area
We will arrive back at church about 3:30 PM
The hike is 1-1.5 hours long
We are excited about this event!! Clear your schedule Saturday and come join us!!
Aug 10 – Bats Baseball Game
(more details to come closer to time of the event)
COLLEGE GROUP
Quick Look at Summer 2021
Dates: July 14, Aug 4
Time: Wednesday Nights at 7:00 PM
Location: RM 202
Aug 10 – Bats Baseball Game
(more details to come closer to time of the event)
Check our website or GroupMe App for up-to-date info regarding events!!
Our Week in the Word segment this week comes from Harrison Meggos. Harrison is a missionary intern for NAOBC (partnering with Ben Nguyen who wrote last post’s Week in the Word) at the Avery apartments across the street from the church.
This past weekend I had the privilege of preaching for the first time, and the selected text was out of 1 John 1.
Fellowship is a personal experience of sharing something significant in common with others.
It’s when you’re with a group of people that see eye to eye on what matters. It’s having similar values and responding with the same kind of affections about what counts. To say you have fellowship with the Father and Jesus Christ means that you have more than just a working relationship with them. You’ve come to not only know who they are, but you share their values, believe what they believe, love what they love, so ultimately you will desire to spend time together. You’ll include them in everything that you do. You cherish the thought of spending an eternity getting to know them better.
Also, when John fosters relationships and experiences, genuine fellowship, with his readers, he tells them what he believes about Jesus. In other words, fellowship becomes even more significant with others when shared among those who share the same view of Christ.
The deeper you want your fellowship to be with others, the more rooted in Christ it needs to be. So as we are going about our day-to-day, we can be joyful in knowing that we are in good company if we place our faith in Christ. We are forever in fellowship with the Father, Christ, and fellow believers.
