College and Singles Weekly Update: June 7-14th
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 celebration 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
- BFG (Bible Fellowship Groups) Sunday Morning 10:30 AM, RM 202
- Sunday Worship: 9:00 AM
- Mid-Week Girls and Guys Small Groups:
Dates: July 7, July 21
Time: Wednesday Nights at 7:00 PM
- Summer Fellowship and Fun:
July 17- Mammoth Cave
Aug 10 – Bats Baseball Game
(more details to come closer to time of the event)
COLLEGE GROUP
Quick Look at Summer 2021
- BFG (Bible Fellowship Groups) Sunday Morning 9:00 AM, RM 202
- Sunday Worship: 10:30 AM
- Mid-Week Girls and Guys Bible Study:
Dates: July 14, Aug 4
Time: Wednesday Nights at 7:00 PM
Location: RM 202
- Summer Fellowship and Fun:
THIS WEEK For the College Group!!
Activity: Activate Games Outing
Date: Thursday, July 8th
Time: 6:30 PM
Address: 2510 Hurstbourne Gem Ln Louisville KY, 40220
More Details:
Meet at Active Games
Wear closed-toed shoes or whatever is most comfortable for you to be active in
The Church will cover half the cost to get in (bring money for the other half)
PLEASE RSVP FOR EVENT – we need a headcount. Click the link here.
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 Ben Nguyen. Ben is a missionary intern for NAOBC at the Avery apartments across the street from the church.
Welcoming of sinners
“All the tax collectors and sinners were approaching to listen to him. And the Pharisees and Scribes were complaining, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’”
Luke 15:1-2 CSB
By understanding how Jesus welcomes sinners and fellowships with them, we need to change how we interact with the spiritually lost and broken around us.
Jesus not only tolerated the worse of the worse sinners in his time, but he ate with them and fellowshipped with them. We, likewise, need to follow his example in showing love towards the unlovable.
Eating a meal with someone and welcoming them was a much bigger deal in the ancient Israelite culture than in our 21st-century American context. This action shows and portrays hospitality, acceptance, and identification with someone. So much so, that you only will dine with someone you’re willing to be a witness for in the court of law.
This identification and acceptance of tax collectors and prostitutes by sharing a meal with sinners is what got Jesus in trouble with the Pharisees. Yet, it also demonstrates His divine humility and love to those who were rejected by society at large.
Jesus was able to be surrounded by sinners and entertain them without being tainted by their sin. Jesus cared about individual human beings. Jesus sees and knows that they are unique objects reflecting God’s glory. In our conversations with unbelievers, we can truly learn to appreciate and admire these qualities we see in Jesus. Though our efforts are marred by sin, there are still hints of God’s glory and goodness reflected in them. We can genuinely care for people as image-bearers and be interested in who God the creator has created them to be.
As Christians, we are called to genuinely love, care for, show hospitality to unbelievers or people who are not like us. We should not view people as objects where we can use to earn brownie points in front of God, like Jehovah’s witnesses.
May you and I welcome sinners as Jesus did.
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” – Spurgeon
