Service Times
Worship Service
Sun. 9:30am – 10:30am
Sunday School
Sun. 10:45am – 11:20am
Prayer Meeting & Bible Study
Wed. 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Crusaders Club (Seasonal)
Thurs. 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Crusaders Teens (Seasonal)
Thurs. 6:00pm – 8:00pm
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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:47 — 46.2MB) Subscribe: Acts 17:24-28
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. Over the years traditions and legalism have contribute to much of the misunderstanding and error concerning God. Satan loves that because it keep us at bay. However, God wants us to know Him personally and deeply. Over the next few weeks we are going to consider some of God’s attributes that will draw us into a closer fellowship with God. When we talk about God’s independence we mean “”God does not need us or the rest of creation for anything, yet we and the rest of creation can glorify Him and bring Him joy.” (Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology, page 160.) The attribute is also commonly called God’s self-existence. Read Job 41;11; Ps. 50:11, 12. These and hundreds more like them teach us God doesn’t need anything from Man. When Jesus prays in the Garden (John 17:5, 24) He’s teaching us God’s Tri-unity and that He is completely fulfilled in every way within Himself. Therefore, since God doesn’t need us, it means:
Truth 1: We exist because God wants us! God didn’t need you, He wanted you! Let that truth get deep into your heart and it will change the rest of your life! If that happens so will
Truth 2: We can bring honor, glory, and praise to God! We are not meaningless creatures to God. God doesn’t play favorites. He doesn’t see one person better than another, He sees us all as equally lost or equally saved! The problem is how we view ourselves. We misrepresent ourselves when we compare ourselves to others. We are to compare vertically, not horizontally! Our concern should be how we compare with Christ, not other people on earth. Read Isa 43:1-7; 62:3-5; Zeph. 3:17; Eph. 1:11, 12. Get it? There is no greater significance than to be significant to God! The Cross is God’s symbol that tells us how significant we are to Him. The third truth God’s independence teaches us is that
Truth 3: We can enjoy fellowship with God as a recipient of all God is. Read Ps. 23:1; 34:10; 84 and Eph. 3:20, 21. Our fellowship with God, and our blessings from God, are all without limit or end. This week when you are in the battle and the world is feeding you the lie that you aren’t worth anything, and that you don’t count, it’s then you need to remember God’s independence and all it means. Why? It means all that garbage the world is trying to feed you is just that – garbage! You exist because Almighty God, The GREAT I AM, The One Who was, Who is, and Who will be forever, chose to created you out of an eternal and infinite desire to fellowship with you! Think about that dear Reader, if you are one of God’s adopted children, you are such because God wanted you. If you are not yet one of His children, it is His desire that you become one by asking Christ to be your Savior! Read Romans 10:9-13 then ask Christ to be your Savior. God wants you to be His child more than all you could ever ask or imagine. The only question you have to answer is “what are you waiting for?” Don’t put it off, even one second too long, because then it will be eternally, too late!
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 57:38 — 51.0MB) Subscribe: Jeremiah 9:23-24
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. When we talk of God, we often use words like incomprehensible, infinite, and eternal. Yet, we say we can know Him. How is that possible? Do you have a desire to keep learning more of God and knowing Him more and more forever? We will never know all of God there is to know, but we can certainly know much of our great God! Consider
- GOD MUST REVEAL HIMSELF TO US! Earlier when we studied the doctrine of Scripture we learned that if we are to know anything of God, He must reveal it to us or we can’t know it. The very fact we have the Bible is proof God wants us to know Him! Matt. 11:25-27; John 1:18; 16:5-15; 1Cor. 1:18-21 and 2:6-16 are a few passages that make it clear God reveals Himself to those who are indwelt with His Holy Spirit.
- GOD CANNOT BE FULLY UNDERSTOOD! We who know Him as Redeemer, know He is omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. He is also eternal and infinite. We, on the other hand aren’t omni anything! Neither are we infinite or eternal in the sense God is. It is wrong to say God can’t be understood at all. That’s what Satan wants us to believe by duping us into thinking God, the Bible, God’s will, and God’s Law are all to confusing and complex to be understood. However, James 3:16 and 1Cor. 14:33 and a host of others teach us God is not the author of confusion. Those are Satan’s tools to keep us from knowing God as He desires. It is right to say God can’t be fully, completely, exhaustively understood or known. Read Job 9:4 and Ps.139:6, 14; and 145:1-5. It is because we don’t understand God fully that we need to 1= walk by faith not by sight; and 2= trust God and don’t depend on what we understand. (Prov. 3:5,6) and rest in the joy that
- GOD CAN BE KNOWN IN TRUTH! All Scripture teaches us about God is truth. But because we don’t know all about Him is not reason to say we can’t understand or trust Him fully! What are some things we can do to know God? In Jer. 29:12 we are told to begin with prayer. An ineffective prayer life is a life without power. We must learn to talk to our Heavenly Father and listen for Him to speak back. Jer. 29:13 says we must seek God with all our heart. I wonder how many Christians put as much effort into seeking God as they do getting up and ready for work? Eph.2:1-3 teaches us we can’t seek God, or know Him, by holding on to our sinful past. We can’t find God looking in the mirror, we find Him in Scripture. Eph. 4:1 and 5:1 tell us to live in harmony with God, not the world. We can’t know God by following the world. Phil. 3:7-14 tells us to persevere or keep on making our knowledge of God more important to us than our knowledge of the world. In 1John 2:3 and 4:8 we learn the result of all this is a life that is constantly, consistently seeking God with all one’s heart in prayer. Yes, God can and wants to be known and understood to a very high degree by His children. He is waiting for us to come to Him with curious hearts ready to submit to His will and allow Him to teach us what a wonderful God He really is.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:12 — 40.2MB) Subscribe: 1 Peter 1:3-9
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. At one time or another every Christian wrestles with the thought “is God really there?” For most the answer is an immediate “yes!” However, for the “carnal” Christian or the unbeliever, the answer is not so immediately certain! Scripture tells us we must always be ready to give an answer for the reason for the hope within us. In that light let’s consider
- THE EVIDENCE IN NATURE AND SCRIPTURE! Ps. 19; Job 38-41; and Romans 1 all declare God’s existence. In fact Scripture never attempts to prove God’s existence. It declares it in the first verse. The excruciating detail of all creation—from the infinite vastness of space to the subatomic particles—demands an intelligence that is beyond human description—not only to create it, but to orchestrate and maintain it with such unalterable and infallible accuracy. All of creation says to Man, ask, seek, knock until you find The One Who directs all this and you will discover He can also direct your own individual life. Such asking, seeking, and knocking will lead us to The Bible where God reveals Himself to us as a very Personal God! Then there is
- THE LAW OF HUMAN NATURE. I “borrowed” that from C. S. Lewis who, in his book Mere Christianity begins with the premise that all people everywhere have an inner sense of what is right and wrong. The question is, where did that sense come from? The answer is found in Scripture in Gen. 2:7 where we learn 1st God formed man rather than just call him into being. Then 2nd God breathed the breath of life into the man and 3rd he became a living soul. What God breathed into us was His own life which eternally connects us to Him. That inner sense of right and wrong is part of “God’s image” in which all people everywhere are created. Because that sense of right and wrong is undeniable, it leads us to
- OUR INNER SENSE OF GOD! Read Romans 1:18-32. Focus on verse 18-20. One of the most powerful forces of evil is the “suppression of the truth.” Even though Scripture is abundantly clear in it’s overwhelming proof that God is real, sin causes people to 1= think irrationally, and therefore, 2 deny God’s existence. Sin is so powerful it causes us to willfully suppress what we know to be true concerning God. When we suppress what we know to be true about God, the result is doubt about God! We begin to think He doesn’t care, and if He doesn’t care, perhaps He’s not even there at all! It is hard to reverse someone’s thinking about God’s existence in the midst of a culture and society where evil seems to rule! The very best, most effective proof that there is an Almighty God Who wants to be deeply involved in every human being’s life, is the true Christian who is completely submitted to God’s unchallenged leadership in every part of their daily life. The evidence of His existence and involvement is clear to that individual. The even greater truth is that through such a life given to God, God reaches beyond that life to all those around it and proves physically, visibly that God is and that He is near. So what is your life telling others about God’s reality?
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us a (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:39 — 40.6MB) Subscribe: Psalm 18:30 – 32
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. People with no spiritual background often ask if The Bible is really enough to know all God wants us to know. Is what’s in the Bible really all there is to know about God? As a Christian how would you answer that question? There are at least three broad truths that help us understand the sufficiency of Scripture. These three truths are given in much more detail in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology.
- SCRIPTURE TELLS US HOW TO BE SAVED. Read 2Tim. 3:14-17; James 1:8; 1Peter 1:23. Notice the phrase “able to make you…” in 2Tim. Paul is telling us God has given to all people all the information necessary to be saved. In verse 16 he then tells us all Scripture is sufficient to teach us how to live as God wants. Therefore, we can never say to God, “I didn’t know.” We will have to admit we knew but chose to ignore!
- SCRIPTURE IS SUFFICIENT FOR EQUIPPING US TO LIFE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. All the books of the Law, much of poetry, the profits, Jesus’ teachings, and certainly the Letters of the Apostles are saturated with instructions in Christian living. God never demands anything from us where He doesn’t give us all the information we need to properly obey; and He never asks us to do anything we can’t do!
- SCRIPTURE IS SUFFICIENT FOR US TO TRUST GOD! Read James 1:18, then vs. 13, then Heb. 6:18. All Scripture tells us God can be trusted. If He couldn’t be trusted, He would not be Perfect! Lack of trust is always an excuse on our part so we can justify our behavior. On the positive side, those who walk with God know He can be trusted! That’s the information, now let’s consider the application. 1. SCRIPTURE ENCOURAGES US TO RIGHT BEHAVIOR! We are constantly reminded to “walk worthy of our vocation…” For those walking with the Lord The Bible draws them closer to God and shows them deeper truths. Even when they are convicted of sin, they consider it blessing because they realize it is the Holy Spirit directing them to the right course. 2. SCRIPTURE REMINDS US NOT TO ADD ANYTHING TO IT! Read Rev. 22:18 and others like it. All cults/sects are guilty of adding other writings to Scripture. Today it is popular for liberal preachers/teachers to suggest new revelations and ideas that aren’t grounded in Scripture. Scripture is complete and needs no further additions from men. 3. WE NEED KNOW ONLY WHAT SCRIPTURE TEACHES! God doesn’t expect us to know what He has not told us. Almost from the Day of Pentecost false writings and teachers have circulated claiming to be God’s Word. Scripture itself warns us to beware of such lies. 4. GOD IS NOT GIVING NEW/MODERN REVELATIONS. Rest assured God is not doing this because it is almost always done in an attitude of self exaltation and aggrandizement; and it always leads to departure from The Bible because it originates in a sin-tainted heart. 5. NOTHING IS SIN THAT IS NOT FORBIDDEN BY SCRIPTURE. Read Ps. 119. To walk in the Law of The Lord is to be blameless in His eyes. Therefore, we cannot add prohibitions that suit our fancy. We may not impose “law or rules” on people that God does not. The point is God’s Word is complete and sufficient for us to do all God wants.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 48:22 — 39.1MB) Subscribe: Deuteronomy 32:44-47
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. For the true Christian Scripture is the bread and water of life. Without it even the most dynamic Christian would become weak and malnourished. Most would tell you they would become terribly lonely without their Heavenly Father’s voice whispering softly into their heart. The final two truths concerning the necessity of Scripture are the most personal and necessary to a Christian walking through this war zone called Earth! Scripture is necessary for
- CONSTANT AND CONSISTENT SPIRITUAL LIFE! Jesus quotes Deut. 8:3 when He says to Satan “man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” In our focal passage today Moses tells the people that Scriptures are, in fact, their very life! 1 Peter 1:13-2:3 tells us the same thing. It is interesting to note in Matt. 5:1 that people were coming to Jesus. True Christians are always coming to Him. Notice in verse 3 He says the “poor in spirit…” The word He used translated poor means completely destitute with no possibility or hope of deliverance from the condition. That is our situation in sin. Our only hope for deliverance is salvation through Christ. Once a person is saved, to survive they must constantly feed on God’s Word. One writer asks this question, “what makes us so spiritually insensitive that we feel physical hunger much more acutely than spiritual hunger?” Did you ever wonder why so many who call themselves Christians are so spiritually destitute? Prov. 19:27 and Eph. 4:18 offer some insight. Spiritual weakness is caused by voluntary neglect of ingesting God’s Word into our hearts. Constant and consistent development of spiritual life is the only possible way to carry on our ministry here! Only the Scriptures can provide such life to us. We also need theBible
- FOR CERTAIN AND CREDIBLE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD’S WILL! Because we are created in God’s image all people have some knowledge of Him in their conscience. Sin and sinfulness distort that knowledge. Without the written Word of God, we could never know the truth and purity of God’s true nature and character. Neither would we know His will for us. God has given us more than enough information to come to an understanding of what He desires from each of us. We believe in the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God as our final and highest authority in all matters of life and living. Therefore, we can know for certain what God’s will for us and how to live it daily. What is it that’s keeping you from doing what you know to be God’s will for you? You probably know, don’t you? So does God! For anyone who claims to be redeemed the Scriptures are absolutely necessary for that person to live! The Bible is absolutely necessary in every part of a Christian’s life all day every day! You can’t be a true Christian and neglect your spiritual life. It’s just not healthy.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:31 — 41.5MB) Subscribe: Romans 10:9-12
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. Last week we learned Scripture is God’s revelation of Himself to Man. Today many people think there is really no need for the Bible—that it is outdated and that a person can learn about God without the Bible—that we don’t need anyone or any book telling us we need a Savior. To the unsaved that may be true, but the necessity of the Bible is one of the most important doctrines we can learn. Why? Only the Bible reveals what we need to know about salvation and having a right relationship to a Holy God. Only a perfectly holy, sinless, righteous God can conceive and offer a redemptive plan that is available to all, equal in all ways to all people without any prejudice or bias. For anyone anywhere to be saved:
- A PERSON MUST CONFESS JESUS IS LORD! Read Rom. 10:9; John 3:16; Eph. 2:8, 9 and the hundreds of others like these. It is relatively easy for those who believe in God and their need of salvation to confess that Jesus is Lord, meaning He is Lord of Creation. The hard part for believers is confessing that Jesus is The God/Man or God in human flesh. There is a truth even harder, for unbelievers and believers alike, and that is to confess Jesus as Sovereign Lord of every part of their individual lives. To do so requires one to say in their heart “I am sinful, condemned, and hopeless without Christ.” Such a confession also confesses God’s judicial majesty and His unchallenged right to redeem only on His terms. Add to all this confession is an event that takes place at salvation; but it is also a lifelong process that continues everyday of a Christian’s life through submission to God’s Word.
- A PERSON MUST CALL UPON JESUS! Read Rom. 10:13. This is one of those truths we hear so much it’s become almost meaningless to us. Two more truths we must understand come into view here. First, we are calling on, invoking, the only name that is above all names that will one day cause every knee to bow confessing Jesus is Lord. Second, people can call on Christ for salvation only if they believe He is God’s Christ worthy of calling on and able to save them. The important thing to remember about calling is that it is a deep, desperate cry for lifesaving help, without which the caller will die! Is that how you live your Christian life? Consider also, the call is both an event and a process. The event is calling on Christ for salvation. The process is calling on Him every day, all day, to lead us through this life. As others see us calling on Christ, they can realize Christians do NOT have to figure all this out on their own; and they begin to see their need for their own salvation. The Bible is a necessary part of our life because it teaches us not only to confess and call, but how, when, where, and to Whom we must call. These are only the first two truths every Christian must learn. IF we don’t learn these, the two we will share next week can’t work as God intends through us. Spend time this week in Ps. 139:22-24 and ask God to help you come to the point where your personal confession and calling are the process God intends them to be.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at(574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 50:46 — 41.0MB) Subscribe: Psalm 19:1-6
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian at iTunes. Simply stated we need the Bible to tell us where we came from, who we are, and how we can live in a proper, harmonious relationship with God. Revelation is “disclosure of what was previously unknown.” Theologically revelation has two sides; 1= Natural revelation where God reveals Himself to us in His creation. 2= Special revelation which is God’s communication to Man in divine truth, which shows and tells us Who He is, and His will or desire for us. Natural revelation tells us there is a Creator; Special revelation tells us Who the Creator is! We need the Bible
- TO ESTABLISH A TRUE AND INERRANT RECORD OF THE HISTORY OF CREATION AND HUMANITY! Read Rom. 9:1-5 as a starter passage. Remove Scripture from history and there is no inerrant record of creation and humanity. Evolution, the big bang, and all other theories all operate on the basis that there was something there to evolve, explode or smash into. None of them can deal with where whatever evolved, exploded, or smashed came from! Scripture tells us clearly God created. We also need the Bible
- TO TEACH US REDEMPTION IS NOT A RESULT OF MAN’S WORKS, BUT OF GOD’S GRACE! Read Rom. 9:16 and Eph. 2:8, 9 for starters. Without Scripture there is no valid explanation for, or an answer to the question of why there is sin, death, or the battle between Good and Evil. Nor is there any valid explanation, understanding, or reasoning why all humanity pays homage in some way to deity! Scripture tells us the desire toward Deity is because God created us in His image, likeness, character, nature which draws us to Him. Without Scripture we cannot know it is sin that drives us away from the God Who created us. Scripture also tell us why our own ideas of how to get to God won’t work and the only plan that will work to secure for us an eternal relationship with an Eternal God. We also need Scripture to tell us
- TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS COMES ONLY FROM GOD TO A SUBMISSIVE HEART! Read Rom. 10:1-4. Without Scripture a person can’t know there are two kinds of righteousness. The first is righteousness by faith, or the kind Abraham demonstrated. It is the righteousness a person has when they come to the point of understanding they need a Savior because of their sin. That righteousness causes them to believe God will redeem them if they ask Him. After a person accepts Gods free gift of salvation, the second kind of righteousness becomes active, which is a righteousness of works. The works do not save a person, works of righteousness are the activities a Christian engages in that are pleasing to God because they are what God wants every Christian to do. Works of righteousness, simply stated, are a Christian’s “thank you” to God for redemption. Much of the conflict comes to Christians, because they think they can concoct their own righteous works that fit into their life and lifestyle and please God at the same time. That just won’t work! Only when we do, or live our lives according to God’s inspired, inerrant, and infallible Word can we see how necessary it really is, and enjoy His blessing.
If we can help you answer your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
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