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Preparing for Sunday - Romans 8:31

October 16, 2024 by Calvin Plank Preparing for Sunday
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Prepare your heart for our Sunday Morning Gathering by looking through these suggestions that will assist you in making the most of our time together.

You will find tangible suggestions for putting scripture to action in your personal life and in our corporate body, links to the songs we will sing, and lyrics for you to prepare for our corporate singing.

This week during the morning worship hour Dr. Don Whitney will be preaching from Romans 8:31 (referancing vs 26-30).

The following is a short speaker bio and some ways to prepare your heart to recieve the word.

don-whitney-IMG_1724-2024-copyDon grew up in Osceola, Arkansas where he came to believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. He was active in sports throughout high school and college, and worked in the radio station his dad managed.

After graduating from Arkansas State University, Don planned to finish law school and pursue a career in sportscasting. While at the University of Arkansas School of Law, he sensed God’s call to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He then enrolled at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX, graduating with a Master of Divinity degree in 1979. In 1987, Don completed a Doctor of Ministry degree at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL and later a Ph.D. in theology at the University of the Free State in South Africa.

Prior to his ministry as a seminary professor, Don was pastor of Glenfield Baptist Church in Glen Ellyn, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago), for almost fifteen years. Altogether, he has served local churches in pastoral ministry for twenty-four years.

Don Whitney has been Professor of Biblical Spirituality and the John H. Powell Professor of Pastoral Ministry at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, MO, since 2024.

He served there in a similar position from 1995 to 2005, and then as Professor of Biblical Spiritual and Associate Dean at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY, from 2005 to 2024.

He is the founder and president of The Center for Biblical Spirituality.

He is the author of:

Don lives with his wife Caffy in Kansas City, MO. She works from their home as an artist, muralist, and illustrator. The Whitneys have a married daughter, Laurelen, and five grandchildren.

Intentionally Act

  • Read Romans 8:26-39 and reread Romans 8:31.

  • What are "these things" referring to in verse 31?

  • Who is the "us" in verse 31? How do you know?

  • What evidence in this passage do we have that God is for us?

  • In what ways might you or others doubt that God is for you?

  • Who/what are the things we tend to believe are against us? In what way are they not against us according to verse 31?

  • In preparation for Sunday, pray trusting that God is for you as a believer. Pray with gratitude for the ways God is for you as described in this passage. Pray confessing the ways you doubt God is for you and have feared lesser things than God.
  • Click the links below to find the lyrics and recordings of the songs planned for our gathering this Sunday; practice the songs, study the lyrics and sing together.
  • Pray for those leading our corporate gathering this week and for the Holy Spirit’s work as the Word of God is further explained and applied: Dawson Bryant: music; Terry Engling: elder prayer; Don Whitney: teaching.

Songs for Sunday

Morning Gathering

Lyrics

Lyrics Morning Gathering - ... by Summit Woods Baptist Church