Category Archives: Meeting Report

Meeting Report (March 2013)

Brethren,

This past weekend, Cool Springs PBC in Danville, GA was privileged to have our annual March Meeting.  In an abundant display of rich grace and mercy, God opened the storehouses of heaven unto us all weekend.  Just one brief glimpse of the goodness of glory is far more than we deserve, but He delivered exceeding abundantly more than that with display after display throughout the course of the services.

Elder Mark Quarles, pastor of Providence PBC in Stringer, MS, was invited to preach for us, and God delivered him mightily.  Brother Mark’s demeanor is generally known as one of great kindness and Christian warmth, and that noble character meshed beautifully with the messages that God had in store for His people in this portion of His vineyard.  Starting on Friday night and continuing through Sunday morning, Brother Mark was delivered to preach a series of sermons on the life of Joseph and show some of the rich types and parallels between Joseph and our Lord Jesus Christ.  While he confessed several times that he did not plan to bring this series of messages on Joseph, it was abundant that he followed the impression and direction of the Holy Ghost.

During the course of his preaching, he covered more than 50 types going through Joseph’s life from Genesis 37-Genesis 50, and the illustrations were coupled with power from the Holy Ghost.  Personally, I can say that the series of messages were very timely for me as they served as a good refreshing of the richness that I have been freely given by His gracious love.  With the close of each sermon, I was aching to go again as good preaching has a way of making the heart yearn and long for more.

During our Sunday night service, I attempted to preach on Judah being a type of Christ in Genesis 43 by standing as Benjamin’s surety just as Christ stood as our surety.  Obviously, my mind had not left the general portion of Scripture that Brother Mark had dwelled in throughout the meeting.  We are thankful to all our visiting brethren and sisters that came to worship with us.  The refreshing we had at Cool Springs was enjoyed and felt by many in other local bodies.  Most of all, we stand amazed and in awe of the unfathomable mercies of God unto us.

When I consider my personal failings, I often wonder why God would even want to meet with me in such a special and intimate way in His church.  Doubtless, the experience of the saints that assembled with us this weekend is similar.  We fail Him so often, and we fall short every day.  Yet, as we heard declared powerfully, He has never failed us or fallen short of His purpose.  He is still pleased to dwell with weak and failing creatures such as we.  He still desires to be with us!  What matchless grace and love!

Elder Mark Quarles (Madison, MS) – pastor of Providence PBC in Stringer, MS.
Elder Mark Quarles (Madison, MS) – pastor of Providence PBC in Stringer, MS.

Many times, the Lord blesses a meeting to have "just what we need" in it.  This weekend was one of those times.  My week and immediate lead-in to the weekend was surrounded by the devil's assaults.  He worked on overdrive and overtime to get ahold of me and injure the receptiveness of my spirit going into the meeting.  However, the Lord's mercy shined forth in refulgent fashion.  Talking to the members at Cool Springs, it seems that all had similar onslaughts as I did.  The Lord smiled upon us in the wake of such bitter warfare, and the rest seemed even sweeter.  May His holy name be praised.

Several have asked about copies of the sermons, and they will be posted to our website at http://coolspringspbc.org/.

In Hope,

Bro Philip

 

If you would like to listen to the preaching efforts at this meeting, please click HERE for the list of sermons.

Meeting Report (Special 5th Sunday Meeting 2012)

Brethren,

This past weekend (September 28-30), Cool Springs Primitive Baptist Church hosted a special 5th Sunday meeting with Elder Sonny Pyles from Graham, TX as the invited minister.  Many years ago, Elder Pyles  was a regular visitor to this area and preached the annual meeting at Cool Springs for many consecutive years.  However, it had been a fair amount of time since Brother Sonny had been to the area in general and Cool Springs in particular.  Therefore, both he and the church looked forward to the time and enjoyed one another’s presence during the course of the weekend.

Brother Sonny is one of those ministers that I have known all my life, and you might say that I “grew up with him” though I never really lived around him.  He was very close to my parents before they had children, and then as time went on, with the whole family.  Hearkening back to my own past, I can remember many days in the home with Mom ironing clothes and doing other household chores while a preaching tape of Brother Sonny played in the background.  She had extensive tapes from his days of preaching in many places (West Texas primarily) back in the 1970s.  He stayed in our home many times, and it was always fun to watch him and Dad interact as they both had personalities that suited each other with dry senses of humor that complemented well.  Having him in our home this weekend brought back some old memories, and he and I swapped many stories from those by-gone days.

While Brother Sonny has aged considerably since I knew him in my youth, he still has the fire to keep going.  We are thankful to our God above for blessing us with yet another opportunity to worship together for an extended period in His house.  The visitation from our sister churches and the area in general was considerable, and we thank all of our visitors that came to be with us.  Truly, the presence of the Lord’s saints cheers the soul, and we thank our kindred in Christ for their kindness.  May it encourage us to visit our brethren regularly and show ourselves friendly.  Below, I have posted the order of services as well as a couple of photos of Brother Sonny preaching on Sunday morning.

Friday Night

Prayer: Elder Rabon Lord
Elder Sonny Pyles – “Lions” from Isaiah 29:1.  Elder Pyles contrasted the difference between our Lion of the tribe of Judah (Christ Jesus) with the ultimate imitator (Satan) who walks about as a roaring lion.
Prayer: Brother Bob Coleman

Saturday Night

Prayer: Elder Garry Hall
Elder Sonny Pyles – “Martha, Lazarus, and Mary” from John 11.  Elder Pyles showed the spiritual understanding and experiences of the Lord Jesus with this family that meant so much to Him.  Though most of the emphasis of spirituality in the family is placed on Mary, he showed that it was a spiritual family in general.
Prayer: Brother John Hancock

Sunday Morning

Prayer: Elder Philip Conley
Elder Sonny Pyles – “Genesis 11 and the confounding of the languages.”  Elder Pyles gave an in-depth synopsis of how language differences originated and how those languages developed into what we know today.  Through language alone, one can see that different cultures give evidence to the truth of God’s testimony through their own culture.
Prayer: Brother Caleb Howell

Sunday Night

Prayer: Elder Dwayne Hooven
Elder Sonny Pyles – “Assurance from I John 3:19 .”  Elder Pyles made the Biblical case that assurance comes and goes depending on one’s circumstances, but that the reality of Christ’s work (that our assurance trusts in) never changes.  From the sermon, no one could deny the Biblical fact that how we feel or behave never changes our position in Christ but it can change our assurance of that position.
Prayer: Brother Bob Lord

Special Meeting Congregation

Special Meeting - Elder Sonny Pyles

In Hope,

Bro Philip