First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

These two stories remind us that when we don’t understand what Jesus is doing, we can trust that He does all things well—both in how He receives us when we come in saving faith and how He sends us out in faithful service to others.

In this sermon, we look at Acts 6:1-7 and Ephesians 5:21-6:4 to discover from the early church servant-leaders and Paul how Jesus can empower our parenting in the 21st century.

Using the latest confrontation with the Pharisees and scribes, Jesus gets right to the heart of two important issues: the supremacy of truth over tradition and true righteousness over religious ritual. In our 21st century world, we need to examine our understanding of these same two areas.

When Jesus walked on water during a storm, coming to help His disciples, they failed to recognize Him and so were afraid. This sermon helps us understand why they couldn't recognize Jesus, when the crowds on the beach could. How can we make sure we will always recognize Jesus in our lives?

Mark reminds us of the Provision of our Good Shepherd as we navigate the world around us. May we find strength, courage, and faith in our Shepherd who Provides all our needs, according to the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus!

These next three stories in Mark reveal three key ways godly parents can raise up their children and send them out ready to meet a lost and hostile world with the love and power of Jesus.

In addition to having power over danger and demons, Jesus shows in the next two miracles that He has power over disease and even death. In this sermon, we see Jesus work in a powerful, life-changing way for two daughters, and through their stories, we learn this powerful, life-changing truth: When facing troubles, we can trust God to transform us by His touch.

Jesus used miracles to demonstrate His authority and power over the natural world and the spiritual world. Think of these miracles like road signs which point us to the Kingdom’s power to deliver us from dangers both natural and demonic.

Parables are earthly stories with a heavenly meaning and were Jesus' favorite teaching method. Through these four parables, Jesus reveals three key truths about how God's Kingdom works in and through our lives. If you have the ears to hear, listen!

In these next few stories in Mark’s gospel, we discover that Jesus came to initiate three new realities in which His people are to live, love, and serve. Think of these as new wineskins--new ways of thinking, being, and relating to others as a community filled with the "new wine" of God's Spirit.

Because of Jesus' Resurrection, the greatest comeback the world has ever known, when you trust your life to Him, you too can experience your own personal comeback story. We look at how Jesus restored Peter to fellowship and service in John 21 to see how we can know life's greatest comeback.

Every miracle and message in Jesus’ life and ministry were all pointing to what happened on Calvary that Good Friday, 2,000 years ago. In this message, we look back at Jesus’ crucifixion, to see who was there. And in doing so, we can discover how each of us were there that day.

Continuing to explore Jesus’ transforming love, we discover the fruit of a life transformed by Jesus’ love is a life of joy, freedom, and sacred rhythm.

Through these three stories early in Jesus’ ministry, we can discover what Jesus’s love is like, and how Jesus expects us to love people in His name.

In the first message of this series, Mark answers the question, "Who is Jesus?" by clearly showing how Jesus is the Messiah and Son of God, pointing to prophets and John the Baptist, to God's announcement at Jesus' baptism, and even how Satan attacks Jesus in the wilderness temptations. In this message, Mark answers the follow-up question, "Why did Jesus come?" by pointing out four central aspects of Jesus' earthly ministry: His message, His team, His authority, and His mission.

"Who Is Jesus?" has been a question asked by people for 2,000 years. It is especially relevant today, because people are more confused than ever about Jesus' identity. Mark gives us the straight-up answer through the first 13 verses of his gospel: Jesus IS the Christ, the Son of God. Join us on the beginning of our journey, walking with Jesus through Mark's Gospel.

If we let Him, God will take the good, the bad, the ugly; the things we celebrate, the things we regret, and the things we mourn—He can take it all and help us grow spiritually and prepare us to accomplish His purpose and plan for our lives.

Just as we have preferences for being right-handed or left-handed, so we have internal preferences for how we learn, relate to others, resolve conflict, plan and organize, and even how we worship and connect with God. If we are armed with good information and we work at it, we can start recognizing these personality preferences, which greatly influence how we see the world around us and interact with others. And then we need to bring our personality, with its strengths and weaknesses, under submission to Christ.

God made you with a purpose in mind, and He has blessed you with abilities and aptitudes. They just may be unexplored, undeveloped, and unused. In this message, you will discover the truth about your abilities and skills, how you can develop and put them to use for God's Kingdom.

Our hearts are the seat of our deepest commitments, loves, and passions. But our hearts have been twisted and marred by sin. This sermon helps us recognize our heart problems, trust in Jesus to give us a new heart, and how to partner with God in examining, guarding, and exploring our hearts so we can discover how best God has shaped and called us to serve His Kingdom.