Faith Covenant Christian Church

11:00 a.m. Service

CALL TO WORSHIP

*INVOCATION

*CONGREGATIONAL HYMN

*RESPONSIVE READING

*PRAYER

SONG OF PRAISE AND WORSHIP

WELCOME / ANNOUNCEMENTS / FELLOWSHIP

OFFERTORY PRAYER AND OFFERING

*INTERCESSORY PRAYER

*PRAYER OF FAITH AND COMMITMENT

SPECIAL MUSIC

WORD OF GOD – Pastor Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.

*INVITATION TO SALVATION AND DISCIPLESHIP

PRAYER OF COMMITMENT

Dear God, I know that I am a sinner. I want to turn from my sins, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is Your Son. I believe He died for my sins and that You raised Him to life. I want Him to come into my heart and to take control of my life. I want to trust Jesus as my Savior and follow Him as my Lord from this day forward.

In Jesus’ Name, amen.

[You may join Faith Covenant Christian Church by: Baptism, Christian Experience,

Re-Dedication, Transfer Letter, or Watch Care]

HOLY COMMUNION (1st Sunday Of Every Month)

BENEDICTION

This Week's Message

Date: December 07, 2025

Preacher: Pastor Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.

Sermon: Paying Attention To God’s Warning Signs

Scripture: Esther 6: 10-13

10 Then the king said to Haman, Make haste, and take the apparel and the horse, as thou hast said, and do even so to Mordecai the Jew, that sitteth at the king's gate: let nothing fail of all that thou hast spoken. 11 Then took Haman the apparel and the horse, and arrayed Mordecai, and brought him on horseback through the street of the city, and proclaimed before him, Thus shall it be done unto the man whom the king delighteth to honour. 12 And Mordecai came again to the king's gate. But Haman hasted to his house mourning, and having his head covered. 13 And Haman told Zeresh his wife and all his friends every thing that had befallen him. Then said his wise men and Zeresh his wife unto him, If Mordecai be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him.

What Difference Does It Make to

Pray for Peace in Our World?

Praying for peace seems an impossible task, or even a waste of time. When we look at the current unrest in our world — the wars in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Sudan, to name just three — we know that even when conflict comes to an end in these regions, peace can be tentative. If war doesn’t return to these areas, it will flare up elsewhere in our world. Even down to the level of our homes, we know that peace is elusive. Quarrels, silent treatment, or someone walking out can occur at any time. As much as we try to keep the peace — or work to make those times we get together with our families peaceful — it is often an ongoing battle to live without tension. In any case, didn’t Jesus tell us in John 16:33, “In this world you will have trouble”? Didn’t Jesus say that “wars and rumors of wars” were a sign of end times and his return (Matthew 24:6-8)? And yet, the Bible doesn’t leave us with this sense of unrest. It does the opposite. The biblical view is to seek peace. As I heard someone say recently, “Chase after peace, pursue it.”

First, to understand what we are praying for, we need to grasp the meaning of peace more fully. We need to know what the word “peace” means in the Bible. The word for peace, shalom in Hebrew in the Old Testament, is more than an absence of conflict. Shalom’s meaning is much broader and more comprehensive. It more correctly means wholeness, soundness, health, security, well-being, and salvation. It can also mean quietness, rest, and completion. Peace, in all the forms mentioned above, is not created by human beings but comes from God himself. Just like love, grace, and mercy are characteristics of God, so is peace; wholeness, well-being, and completion are part of God’s nature. God is the creator of peace. And as one commentator says, “peace is the ideal of creation.” We pray for the plan of the Creator to fill the earth, as the heavens, with His peace. We pray for God to restore our world to His intended plan for creation. We should pray within our churches and with other believers for the blessing of God’s peace to come to earth from heaven. Just as the Lord’s prayer begins: Our Father… we ask for His blessing of peace on us, all as his people. God’s Kingdom of peace is the needed difference to our world.

SUNDAY SCHOOL NEXT WEEK

SUNDAY SCHOOL – December 14, 2025

____________________________

Our Heavenly Father ~ Matthew 6:24-34

Lesson Aims: After participating in this lesson,

each learner will be able to:

1. Summarize the totality of God's provision for the needs of all creation.

2. Explain how to trust God in order to be free from worries.

3. Make a plan for serving to meet the basic needs of people in the community.

Who Do You Serve?

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. 25 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

The scene is Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. He has called twelve disciples to follow Him while He heals numerous diseases and proclaims the good news: God’s kingdom has finally come (Matt. 4:23). Soon crowds of travelers come to Him, and Jesus climbs to the top of a hill, where He sits down to teach (Matt. 5:1). These are ordinary people whom Jesus is addressing, and He uses ordinary language. He asks listeners to adopt a completely different relationship to money. Instead of looking to gain treasures of the world—which can deteriorate or be taken in an instant—Jesus speaks of “treasures in heaven” (Matt. 6:19–20). The heavenly Father has good things in store for His people and will keep those heavenly treasures safe. But Jesus isn’t making a point about the need for better banks. God really cares about the heart of His people. It is hard to be ready for God to reshape the world if we are wrapped up in maintaining our financial security. Jesus invites His listeners to an attitude of freedom—freedom from concern so that we can freely serve God. How we operate shows the attitude of our hearts. Thus, Jesus forces the choice: be devoted to earthly security or be devoted to God. Jesus challenges followers to consider how tightly we possess our possessions. Have these become our “master,” or do we use them to serve God (v. 24)? Are we devoted to the new thing that God is doing, or are we chasing a comfortable standard of living? When the prophet Elijah challenged Israel, he said, “If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him” (1 Kings 18:21). In the same vein, Jesus says, “You cannot serve both God and money” (Matt. 6:24). Matthew gives the Aramaic word for wealth, mammon, a personification of this unfettered pursuit for material possessions. Jesus is not talking about things that are “extra,” what we call wants versus needs. That would be too easy! Jesus says His followers have no need to take “thought of” (KJV) or “worry about” (NIV) needs either: “your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear” (v. 25). His audience must have included people without enough food to eat or clothes to wear. It is hard not to worry about basic essentials like these! But God gave us life. He knows how to take care of our bodies. We don’t simply wait for food or clothes to fall from the skies, although God did feed His people with bread from heaven (Ex. 16:4). But as we do prudent things to keep our needs met, we can rest in the sure knowledge that we are seen by God. His concern for us is clear, even from the example of “birds of the air” (v. 26). These creatures build homes and search for food, but they do not worry about daily tasks. Somehow, God feeds them. Jesus asks a rhetorical question: What good does worry bring? (v. 27). It can’t make us taller (KJV), nor can it give us any more time (NIV). It gives nothing, but it robs us of joy.

Who Do You Trust?

28 "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you-you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or What shall we wear?' 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus continues drawing analogies to the ordinary things around Him. Maybe it was spring when he was speaking, and the birds were flying overhead. Jesus might have gestured to his feet to point out the “flowers of the field” growing about (v. 28). God not only feeds the birds, which are of far less importance than humans, but He also “clothes” these flowers (v. 28). Flowers do not worry about growing; God takes care of that part. They do not weave their clothes or spin thread, which are steps to create handmade garments. Yet all around is God’s handiwork, and these flowers are clothed in more elegant garments than King Solomon, who was famously wealthy. If the heavenly Father cares so much about transient things, He can be trusted to care for His people and to clothe them. Worry and anxiety that God’s children display over food or clothing reveals a “faith” issue (v. 30). We might think, God is not anticipating my needs, so I will handle them. Others may think, While God created the universe, human needs are too hard or too minor for Him. To solve a faith problem, Jesus says that His followers must put priorities in order. Physical needs take second place to “[seeking] first his kingdom and his righteousness” (v. 33). In that way of life, the troubles of tomorrow take a backseat to the kingdom priorities of today (v. 34). This is not the “don’t worry” and “live your life” advice we might find on bumper stickers or in the choruses of popular music. Jesus is not criticizing foresight or planning, and He isn’t making a single demand that He was not prepared to model. Although Jesus is the Son of God, He was willing to leave heaven behind to live without a permanent home (Matt. 8:20). When tempted to put His physical needs first, He refrains from turning stones to bread and goes hungry instead (Matt. 4:3–4). When stripped of His clothing and subjected to the humiliation of the cross, Jesus chooses to save others and not Himself (Matt. 27:35, 42). In all circumstances, He expresses faith and confidence in the provision of the Father. God’s kingdom is really coming and is already breaking through to our reality. Those who follow Jesus must learn to place radical trust in the Father, like Him.

About Us

OUR HISTORY

Faith Covenant Christian Church began on February 27, 2014 following a fellowship dinner for displaced former members of Crossroads Christian Church. Following that first meeting, we formed a Planning Committee and began meeting @ Best Western Hotel at Cedar Bluff.

On May 7, 2014, we adopted the name Faith Covenant Christian Church, with our foundational verse being Jeremiah 50:5. On June 22, 2014 an invitation to membership was given by Rev A. David Baxter and 21 people united with Faith Covenant Christian Church. Women’s and Men’s Ministries began having regular meetings. In September 2014, we began having Sunday School and Wednesday Night Bible Study. In November, Youth Ministry began. By the end of 2014, ten more people joined, three as new converts. We moved to 1027 Summer Wood Drive on April 1, 2015. Following a yearlong pastor search, Violet P. McRoy, was called as pastor on April 18, 2016. In March 2018, Pastor McRoy resigned as pastor, due to poor health and other personal issues. God quickly responded to our prayer-laden search and Nokomis Yeldell, Jr. was elected to the pastoral position on April 16, 2018. On Easter Sunday in 2025, we moved into a new sanctuary at 1021 Summer Wood Drive. In May, 2025, we celebrated our 11th church anniversary and are looking onward, upward and forward to serving God faithfully.

OUR PASTOR

Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.

Pastor Yeldell was born in Mt Pleasant, Texas, the third of five children of Nokomis and Dollie Pearl Yeldell. His father, also a Pastor for over 60 years, was called to Memphis, TN, where Nokomis Jr. grew up. Following graduation Pastor Yeldell attended Southwestern Christian College. He then served four years in the United States Air Force. He then decided to move to Knoxville, TN to further his education. After serving in leadership capacities in various ministries at Foster Chapel Baptist Church, Pastor Yeldell was called into the ministry in 2010.

Faith Covenant Christian Church represents Pastor Yeldell’s third and prayerfully final pastorate.

WHAT WE BELIEVE

FAITH COVENANT Christian Church accepts the Holy Scriptures as the revealed will of God, the all-sufficient rule of faith and practice, and holds to the following foundational truths:

1. The One True God

GOD IS… He is the eternally existent and immutable Father, Creator of the Universe and everything therein. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, and in Him we move and have our being. He is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Our Triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is One God in three distinct persons: one in essence and purpose and distinct in personality and function. He is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient. He is the essence of love, goodness, faithfulness, kindness, mercy, grace, holiness, righteousness, and justice.

2. The Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the eternally existent Son of the living God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the image of the invisible God, and the firstborn of all creation. Through Him was made everything that is made—things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things are held together.

He was born of a virgin, and lived a sinless life. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God through His substitutionary death on the cross. He was resurrected bodily from the dead, and sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.

3. The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth, who goes out from the Father and testifies about the Son. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of guilt in regards to sin and righteousness and judgment. He is given to all who believe, for Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit according to the promise of God the Father, who gives the Spirit without limit. The Holy Spirit lives with us and in us, bringing about the endowment of power for life and service, as well as the bestowment of the gifts and their uses in the work of the ministry. These gifts of the Holy Spirit, distributed according to His own will (Hebrews 2:4) include: prophecy, service, teaching, encouragement, contributing to the needs of others, leadership, mercy (Romans 12:6-8), message of wisdom, message of knowledge, faith, healing, miraculous powers, distinguishing between spirits (discernment), tongues, interpretation of tongues (1 Corinthians 12:7-11).

4. Salvation from the Penalty of Sin

By grace, through faith, we are saved from the penalty of sin. Mankind, though made in the image of God, has inherited through the first man, Adam, a sinful nature. By this nature, all mankind has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and thereby, was alienated from God; dead in transgressions—gratifying the cravings, desires, and thoughts of the sinful nature; following the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air; stirring up wrath against himself for the day of God’s wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. But God did not appoint mankind to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—and saved us by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

5. Salvation from the Power of Sin

By grace, through faith, we are saved from the power of sin. Having been crucified with Christ, we put to death the deeds of the body so that sin shall have no dominion over our mortal bodies. We have received the Spirit who is from God so that we may live by faith, understanding what God has freely given us to accomplish His purpose:

He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our personal knowledge of Him as Savior and Lord.
He has given us His precious and magnificent promises by which we may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
He has given us apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ, His church, may be built up.
He has given to us the manifestation of the Spirit through spiritual gifts for the common good.
He has given us the ministry of reconciliation: that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him.

6. Salvation from the Presence of Sin

By grace, through faith, we are saved from the presence of sin, for the Lord Jesus died and rose again, and will Himself come down from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God. The dead in Christ shall rise first, and we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. And there shall be a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth will pass away. And we shall dwell with God in the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. We shall be His people, and God Himself will be with us and be our God. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away.

7. The Inspiration and Inerrancy of Scripture

God’s Word is TRUTH. The Holy Scriptures (both the Old and New Testament) is the inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word of God. We are saved from the penalty, power, and presence of sin by grace through faith that comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God, which testifies of Jesus Christ. By His Word, God has revealed Himself, His plan, His purpose, and His ways—so that we would come to Him to receive eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ our Lord.

OUR MINISTRIES

Faith Covenant Christian Church operates under a FIVE FOLD Ministry concept

I EXALTATION

Deacons- Bro. Reggie Lindsey

Holy Sacraments And Sacred Days – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

Media- Sis. Tiaeshia Kelso, Bro. Anthony Lindsey

Music- Bro. Reggie Lindsey

Program – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

Public Relations – Bro. Reggie Lindsey, Sis. Sabrina T. Wilson

Pulpit – Pastor Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.

Reconciliation – Ministerial Council

Ushers – Sis. Teresa Farmer

II ENABLING

Benevolence – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

Food Pantry – Bro. Karl Townes

Hospitality – Sis. Teresa Farmer

Intercessory Prayer – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

Missions – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

III EDUCATION

Bible Study – Pastor Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.

Youth Church –

Sunday School – Bro. Reggie Lindsey

Supplemental Education And Training – Bro. Reggie Lindsey

Vacation Bible School –

IV EDIFICATION

Church-Wide Edification – Sis. Sabrina T. Wilson

Men’s Ministry – Bro. Karl Towns

Women’s Ministry (WICS) – Sis. Teresa Farmer

Youth – Sis. Earlenia Lindsey

V EQUIPPING

Administration – Sis. Sabrina T. Wilson

Finance – Sis. Teresa Farmer, Sis. Tiaeshia Kelso, Sis. Sabrina T. Wilson

Transportation – Bro. Karl Towns

Trustees – Bro. Karl Towns

Kitchen Ministry / Special Events – Sis. Teresa Farmer

Comfort And Care Ministry - Pastor Nokomis Yeldell, Jr.