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: 50:11 — 45.9MB) Subscribe: Micah 5:1-5
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 considered the promise of The Savior that came after the Fall but before expulsion from Eden. Adam and Eve thought Cain could be the Messiah until he killed Abel. Only God knew He would use the next 4-6 millennia to prepare the world for the coming Savior. Dr. Norman Geisler gives a brief outline of each of the OT books that shows how God prepared the world for Messiah. I used some other references to add further info to help us marvel at the revelation of how a Sovereign God directed human history from creation to the Cross in what Eric Sauer calls The Dawn of World Redemption. God’s preparation begins with
- AN EXTRAVAGANT CREATION. Genesis is a book of beginnings. It teaches us how God created the universe, the human race, how sin came into the race, and how Israel was established as God’s nation that would bring the promised Seed. It also teaches us that God is a God of relationships between Him and nature, Him and Man, Man and Man. God also prepared the world by
- ESTABLISHING A FOUNDATION. That foundation is set down in the Books of the Law or the Pentateuch (Gen. thru Deut.) In Exodus we see God redeem His nation. He delivered them from bondage, separated them from their former life of slavery, and brought them to Himself. The 10 Commandments establish the ethics and morality of God’s people, which is shown through the elaborate system of sacrifice and worship. In Lev. God sanctifies His nation. The theme of the book is the holiness of God confronting the sinfulness of man. We learn in Leviticus that God is a Holy God Who will not tolerate sin. The book teaches us a life of worship, obedience and sacrifice does not purchase salvation; salvation is always a gift from God. The lifestyle taught is given to teach people how to maintain fellowship with God. In Numbers we watch God guide His nation. He leads them from Sinai through the desert to Canaan. In that journey He teaches Israel they are His servant nation charged with establishing God’s kingdom on earth. He also teaches them the constancy of His faithfulness, even when they are not! In Deuteronomy God instructs His nation. The central message of the book emphasizes the spiritual life which is a call to total commitment to God in worship and obedience. We often miss that truth today, don’t we? In Joshua, God establishes His nation. In the victories Israel experiences when they obey, God teaches them (and us) that a life of worship and obedience is also a life filled with reward and blessings in victory. Joshua teaches us how God moves in the lives of His people to teach, nurture, and care for them while He develops them into a mighty army. That army not only conquers foes, but realizes spiritual victories over forces of evil in the spiritual realm. God also teaches them He is a covenant-keeping God Who always delivers all He promises. So the question becomes, how extravagant is your preparation for the Lord God to work in your life? To what extreme have you gone to let God lay a foundation in your life so you can do the work He has planned for you?
If we can help you with these or other spiritual questions call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 47:56 — 43.9MB) Subscribe: Genesis 3:1-19
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. It could be said that one must go back to our passage today to find the very beginning of the meaning of Christmas. The only people that know how long it was between Gen. 2 and Gen. 3 are Adam and Eve. We know Adam lived 930 years, but we don’t know how many of them he lived in Eden. They used the freedom God gave them to become like God, rather than be content to be led by God! It is interesting to find the promise of all promises located in the curse of all curses! Now, let’s consider this wonderful promise from the positive side. THE PROMISE OF A SAVIOR MEANS:
- REDEMPTION! God uses “progressive revelation” to teach us about Himself a little at a time so we can learn and understand what He is teaching. Notice the curse is humiliating, hostile, and bloody. Have you ever stopped to consider the cure was also humiliating, hostile, and bloody? In this section, we learn three things. First, the Savior will be a human being; second, death and bloodshed are the price/consequence for sin; and third, Adam and Eve accepted God’s terms of redemption by wearing the skins (which were a constant reminder of their disobedience). It would have been so easy for God to eliminate Adam and Eve and just start over, but, then He wouldn’t be a God of redemption. A savior means
- RESTORATION! Dr. Norman Geisler gives insight into the curse pronounced on Satan which established the war between God and Man; the curse on Eve which established the war between the sexes; and the curse on Adam which established the war between Man and Earth. If one were to explain the “desire to rule” it would be “you will have the tendency to dominate your husband, and he will have the tendency to act as a tyrant over you.” “Dominate” is an excellent word to describe self affected by sin. In salvation, people can enjoy a restored relationship if all are saved and all have allowed the effects of restoration to work in their hearts. There is coming a time, because of the Advent of the Savior, when God will restore all relationships to the way He intended them to be before the Fall. The promise of a Savior also means:
- RETURN. Had God just destroyed Adam and Eve He would be a God of elimination, not salvation! He can’t be like that! I am so glad God put 3:15 before 3:22-24. Why? God promised the possibility of return to paradise before He drove Adam and Eve out of His presence. Had He not done it that way, we would live forever in hell. When Christ died and the curtain tore from top to bottom, God was indicating that the way of return was now open and a proper relationship between God and Man had been restored. As we begin this Christmas season, we are obligated to thank and praise God for His redeeming grace that restored a right relationship to Him. Those two truths make the future return to Paradise (Heaven) possible. If we had no other gift from God, our salvation would be enough to cause us to humbly praise and glorify Him forever!
If we can help you with your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:58 — 50.3MB) Subscribe: Hebrews 11:1-6
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. Last week we studied that giving, whether money, time, talent, or yourself, to God begins with faith. Faith is when we give God the opportunity to make spiritual truths visible, physical realities in our life. Today we learn how important that is to the Christian.
- AN IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION. This verse was written “without faith, it is impossible to be well-pleasing to God.” The word for “impossible” means just what we think it does! Something that is impossible can’t happen! If we never give God a chance to prove to us that He and all the benefits of salvation are real, there is no way we can be pleasing to Him. How pleased would you be with a loved one who kept kicking you in the teeth every time you tried to show them your love for them was real? Why would we expect God to be pleased with us when we do the same thing to Him? The more times we let God prove Himself to us by making spiritual truths real, the more often we will give Him the chance to be pleased with us. At salvation, God gave us a “clean slate.” Then He asks, “will you give me opportunities to fill that “slate” with evidences that I am intensely interested in you?” Are you willing to do that Dear Christian? Notice how we do that!
- ACCEPT HIS INVITATION TO COME. The starting point is so simple it is profound. Another of Satan’s most effective lies is making a person think (1) coming to God isn’t necessary since He saved us and knows we exist; (2) making us think that before we can come we must clean ourselves up and be worthy to approach Him. The songwriter was right in saying “just as I am, I come.” Our sin and sinfulness sometimes embarrasses, discourages, or shames us when we think about coming before our Holy Heavenly Father. We know we have let Him down, hurt Him, or smeared His Name! Think about it – would the same God Who came looking for you to eternally save you, then abandon you or reject you when you come to Him for help? Impossible!! Next we must
- BELIEVE THAT HE EXISTS! If a person is a true Christian, this is not an issue. As Christians we know it is the Eternal God Who has sought us, saved us and is now sanctifying us to prepare us to live with Him forever in His heaven. The Christian’s problem is not “believing God exists”, it’s
- BELIEVING HE REWARDS THEM WHO DILIGENTLY SEEK HIM. It’s often easier to believe God rewards others than it is to believe He rewards us, isn’t it! It is interesting to note that God inspired the writer to say a person must “believe,” which is the same word for faith! The problem comes with “diligently” seeking God. We must look for God with the intent of finding Him, then letting Him do as He wants in our lives. We must look/seek hard, long, continuously, and relentlessly (Prov. 2:1-4) as did Christ for us when He saved us, to give God all the opportunities to work in our lives. When we do, He rewards us with the very best so we will become an “exact representation” of His Son, Jesus Christ.
If we can help you with your spiritual questions call us at (574)643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 49:30 — 45.3MB) Subscribe: Hebrews 11:1-6
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian in iTunes. When it comes to “faith” do you as a Christian believe God can or do you believe God will? There is a significant difference. God does not want us to wonder how to live the Christian life, He wants us to know for certain. That certainty is the basis for our faith. In Heb. 11:1 we see
- FAITH DEFINED. I Googled “a biblical definition of faith” and got 10,500,000 results. I find that amazing since God gives us one very clear definition of faith! God calls faith “the reality of things hoped for, and the proof of things not seen.” The two key words are reality and proof. Someone has rightly stated, “Biblical faith is not believing God can, but knowing God will!” Where do you stand? The difference between “believe” and “know” is how much faith you have in God. The distance between believing God can, and knowing He will, is the amount of doubt you harbor in your heart! Watch how beautifully God explains faith.
- REALITY. For our purposes I’m going to show how God defines reality in three segments. 1. In John 1:1, then 14 God tells us Jesus was a physical, visible, touchable human being. When something is physical, visible, touchable we say it is real because we experience it with our senses. God teaches us that He (Spirit-John 4:24) became in the Person of Jesus Christ physical, visible, touchable (1John 1:1-3) so we could KNOW He is real. 2. In Ex. 33:12-23; 40:34, 35; Matt. 17:1-5, and Rev. 21;9-11, 22, 23, 22:5 we learn that whenever God the Father reveals Himself to us it is always through His (Shekinah) glory, or blinding, bright light. That light is the manner God has chosen to show us He is real. 3. In John 14:8-11 Jesus says “if you have seen Me, you have seen The Father.” Now read Heb. 1:2 and notice that Jesus is the exact representation of God’s glory. Jesus doesn’t have God’s glory, Jesus IS God’s glory! If you read Rom. 1:18-20 Paul tells us that when God’s invisible power and nature become physical, visible, touchable God is telling us in ways we understand that He is real. Faith being reality means that we allow God to demonstrate to us, through events in our daily life, that He is real. When we understand that God is real, we change from believing to knowing!
- THINGS HOPED FOR. Things hoped for, in Scripture, is never neutral but always looks to the future as either good or bad. That expectation then becomes either hope or fear. In Scripture the expectation of good is always hope! It is always associated with trust (Prov. 3:5, 6), desire (Ps. 37:4), and patient waiting (Ps. 27:14). Answer this question: what do you expect from God? A broad question but is your FIRST answer something that begins in the spiritual realm, or in the worldly realm. Matt. 6:33 tells us to begin in the spiritual realm desiring the things of God (invisible) over the things of this world (visible). When we desire the things of God and give Him the opportunity to work in our lives so those spiritual attributes of God become physical, visible, touchable experiences in our lives, we receive real, true, faith that is in fact our reality.
If we can help you in the matter of faith or any other spiritual area, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:34 — 37.1MB) Subscribe: Judges 4:1-10
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. On July 4thwe celebrate our nation’s independence; on Memorial Day we remember those who gave their lives for our country; this past Friday, on Veterans’ Day we honor all those who have and are serving in our Armed Forces. I think it necessary to remember those “forgotten veterans” who were never awarded any medals for their services, but they were and are just as crucial as all those men and women “on the front lines.” I’m talking about the wives (and now some husbands), fiancé’s, and significant others who “serve on the home-front!” One veteran told me “until you have experienced aforced separation because of a war or overseas tour, you don’t understand.” Most every soldier whose ever gone to war wants that last kiss and hug to last forever, because it may be the last one forever! The soldier goes to war and their days are filled with the burden of staying alive. Often that last hug/kiss and look flashes across their mind and is a driving force for them to “make it out alive” and go home! On the other hand the wives, husbands, others must return to their daily routine that’s now without their partner. Every day, 24/7 they are surrounded with the memories of life before war! In Judges 4 Deborah, the only woman judge of Israel, demonstrates three of the character qualities many of these forgotten veterans displays.
- COMPASSION. You see Deborah’s compassion in 5:6, 7. Often the meaning of compassion used in Scripture means suffering with another. We get our word sympathy from one of its forms. Here Deborah showed compassion by taking action to relieve the sense of hopeless and despair that infected Israel because of the Canaanite oppression. She didn’t turn a deaf ear to the concerns of Israel, but took action. Many women who stayed behind while their man went to war stepped up to the plate by going to work in the factories that manufactured the machinery of war. They had to leave the safety of their “nests” and get involved. Deborah also was
- MAGNANIMOUS. She was willing to put herself out for the cause of Israel. She could have said no to Barak and let him go it on his own. Instead, Deborah acted! It would have been easy especially during WW’s 1, 2 for the women to say “working in factories is men’s work!” Many (maybe most) put their lives on hold to go do what they could to contribute to their husband’s chances of returning! Deborah also demonstrated
- LITERARY ABILITY. Read chapter 5. One writer says of it “it’s the finest masterpiece of Hebrew poetry, deserving a place among the best songs of victory ever written. If you ask, many soldiers will tell you they still have every letter they ever received while on the battle field. Actually, that would work both ways. Finally, Deborah reveals her
- SPIRITUAL COMMITMENT! In song God gets all the credit, not her. Like Deborah many of the women of our nation’s fighting men who received no ticker tape parades, no medals of honor or valor prayed their men home. They were a vital part in the lives of their men, but gave God all the credit for seeing them home. Many gave/give God the credit for giving them the strength to carry on – even when it is alone!
If we can help you answer your spiritual (or other) questions call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 41:06 — 37.6MB) Subscribe: Lev. 17:11 and Mark 14:22-26
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 month we began a look at some of the doctrinal truths concerning the shed blood of Christ. Thank you to Pastor Jerry Shirley for the outline. Last month we saw how the blood is perfect, pure, perpetual, and powerful. Now let’s consider
- IN ACQUITTAL – THE BLOOD IS PERMANENT! In Scripture acquittal means “to clear, to clean, to hold guiltless or innocent.” In its simplest form it means “exchange.” When we are redeemed God exchanges our unrighteousness for Christ’s righteousness. It is part of the doctrine of justification. Paul explains it in Rom. 3:21-5:21. This exchange is also explained as “imputation” which means God declares a believer righteous before Him. The righteousness God uses is the righteousness of Christ through His death on the Cross. The point here is not all the theology, but the fact that God loves us so much He was willing to put all our sinful guilt and unrighteousness on Christ at His death. Then He took all the perfect, sinless righteousness of His Son and put it on us, so we could be acceptable in His sight. If you just stop and think about that, if you are a true, adopted child of God, it will amaze you to think about the great thing God has done. All this “keeps us saved” because Christ is the Eternal God of Heaven and Earth. To suggest we can lose our salvation is blasphemy against the eternality of God.
- IN APPRAISAL – THE BLOOD IS PRECIOUS. The rarer anything is, the more value it has. Stop and consider that there is only one Son of God for all eternity. How valuable is that? His is the ONLY perfect blood to be freely given in atonement for the sin of people. Add that to the valuable list. His death for all sin for all time happened only ONCE in all eternity. In short, there is no more precious commodity known to Mankind than the shed blood of Christ. God paid the highest price ever for the adoption rights to us as His children. What, in all creation, can be worth more than that? If you are an adopted child of God, do you see how precious you are because of the price paid for you? There is no more precious thing than the blood of Christ.
- IN AGGRESSION – THE BLOOD IS PROTECTIVE! If you wanted to use Scripture to demonstrate the protective power of blood, what part would you use? How about the Passover recorded in Exodus 12? When we as Christ, our Passover Lamb, to save us, He sheds His blood on the doorposts of our hearts to protect us from eternal spiritual death. Do you know what color the Bible paints sin? Read Isaiah 1:18. Think that’s a coincidence? Not a chance!!! The crimson blood of Christ covers our crimson sin washing it white as snow! We are forever clothed in the protective righteousness of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Lev. 17:11 tells us the life of the creature is in the blood and God has given it to us to atone for our sins at the altar. The perfect, pure, perpetual, powerful, permanent and precious blood of Christ secures our eternal presence in God’s heaven for us!
What a picture! If we can help you with your spiritual questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:19 — 54.3MB) Subscribe: Nehemiah 4:7 – 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. Until we are in heaven and God does away with sin and all its effects, we will be plagued with anger. Anger is both a result and a cause of fear. When Sanballat and Tobias discovered their attempts to discourage the Jews from rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, they turned their anger up a notch by threatening the Jews with bodily harm. Let’s consider how anger threatens to destroy.
- ANGER DISTORTS REALITY! One of the most common reasons for anger is because one’s expectations are not met! Satan knows how to push our buttons to make us angry. Whenever that part of us that remains not surrendered to God is threatened the usual response is anger. In the OT anger most often refers to God’s response to man’s rebellion and sin. Anger means to vex, agitate, provoke the heart to a heated condition leading to specific actions. Only in God’s case does anger NOT distort reality. So how does anger distort reality? 1st it ignores the truth and reality of God – Romans 1:18-33; 2nd it discourages the glory of God – Rom. 1:23; 3rd it changes the truth of God so we serve self rather than Him – 1:25; 4th it encourages gross immorality – 1:27; 5th it causes us to abandon the knowledge of God – 1:23; and 6th it condones and practices sin as the normal way of life – 1:28-33.
- ANGER DESTROYS HOPE! Remember this whole building project in grounded in renewed hope that came from God! He directed everything so that exactly the right time the Jews could build the wall. When ungodliness even thinks God’s people are gaining ground through hope from God, it begins to destroy the hope and stir up trouble. Hope is usually destroyed with threats of some kind. In this case the very lives of the Jews were threatened! The sad truth is this very thing still happens today, and it even happens in local churches through ungodly leaders and members who like to control others. Satan makes sure he’s got at least one or two Sanballat’s and Tobias’s who are ready to stop anything that looks like progress that wasn’t their idea!
- ANGER DEVALUES GODLINESS! Notice verse 7 they were “very” angry. That is rage or indignation, wrath, fury. One pastor expressed it well by saying it is “anger out of control.” Sanballat and Tobias were so angry in their hearts at the renewed hope in the Jewish community they planned to fight against Jerusalem. The Jews had lived in oppression, disharmony, and ungodliness for so long that all that became normal. Under those conditions reality became distorted and hope faded. Those are results, not causes! What caused such conditions? Unspiritual hearts hostile toward God-Rom. 8:5-9; Gal. 5;16-26. All these threats were a manifestation of inner anger, often the worst kind. Dear Reader, is there some part of your life that God is encouraging you to move forward? Has He prompted you with a ray of hope? In response have you perhaps balked at the idea of surrendering control of that part of your life? You are fighting a battle you can’t win! It is so much easier to allow God to control ALL your life and share with you the blessings He has prepared for you.
If we can help answer questions, call us at (574) 643-9419.
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