July 18, 2021

Upcoming Events and Notices

We have resumed in-person worship service. Please join us at 11 AM. You can find the order of worship and songs here

Please join us as we read another collection of great books for the year 2021. You can find the list here.

August 8 (Lord’s Day): Please join us for our monthly fellowship meal after the worship service!

Thank you for your continued support of Grace Fallbrook (PCA). Your loving support makes the proclamation of the gospel and the building up of the saints possible. Please continue to mail in your gifts and offerings to our church treasurer, Bruce Summers. In addition, our church website now features online giving. Please visit the church website and click on "Give" which you will find in the upper left corner of our church's website. When you click on "Give Online Now" button on that page, you will be directed to the PCA Foundation where you can give towards Grace Fallbrook (PCA).

Before We Worship

Hebrews 12:1–2 is surely one of the most important passages in the entire Bible. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." These words set out the strategy for fighting against sin and growing in holiness. Every Christian, of course, is intensely invested in these matters. We want less of sin and more of holiness. But how?

The key, according to Hebrews 12:2, is "looking to Jesus". But what does that mean? This is how John Newton explains:

"So, if obedience be the thing in question, looking unto Jesus is the object that melts the soul into love and gratitude, and those who greatly love, and are greatly obliged, find obedience easy. When Jesus is upon our thoughts, either in his humbled or his exalted state, either as bleeding on the cross, or as worshipped in our nature by all the hosts of heaven, then we can ask the apostle's question with a becoming disdain, "Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?" God forbid. What! Shall I sin against my Lord, my Love, my Friend, who once died for my sins, and now lives and reigns on my behalf; who supports, and leads, and guides, and feeds me every day? God forbid."

That is, our fight against sin and growth in holiness is really about one thing. Do we love Jesus? Indeed, "looking to Jesus" is letting the reality of Jesus' suffering and glory fill our hearts with love for him. And, as Newton so well puts it, "those who greatly love, and are greatly obliged, find obedience easy."

Do you love Jesus? It is startling to realize, isn't it, that this is the most important question!