First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

When you approach the Bible, remember it’s more than a textbook to learn or a rulebook to follow…it is God’s Word to you, revealing His Mind and Heart. In this message, I'll share with you some ways we can get a good grip on God’s Word so we can handle it correctly. The more you use the Bible, the better a grasp you will have of Scripture and the better equipped you will be for life!

Ultimately, the doctrine of the Bible boils down to the question of its reliability and authority. As I said last week, if we can’t trust ALL of Scripture, how can we trust any of it? That’s why it is vital to be clear on what it means for God to inspire the biblical writers so that what they wrote are in fact the words of God Himself. That is our basis for the truthfulness, trustworthiness, and authority of the Bible. In this sermon, I'll unpack the implications of believing the that Bible is the Inspired Word of God.

The biggest question about the origins of the Bible are this: How much of it was inspiration, and how much of it was perspiration? How much of this is the work of God and how much is the work of men? We'll explore these questions in this sermon and discover how words written thousands of years ago, in ancient languages, on the other side of the planet became the Bible you hold in your hand today.

Given the crisis of biblical illiteracy in our churches, we need to rediscover the rich treasury of truth, wisdom, and life-changing power that is found in the pages of the Bible! This begins with us going back to the basics. Do we know, understand, and believe in what the Bible is? Do we truly trust the Bible, and know why we can trust it? How do we use the Bible for changing our lives, helping others, and knowing and following Jesus more fully? I hope this sermon series will help us answer those questions more firmly in our hearts and minds, and that it will equip us to confidently share these truths about the Bible with others. Let’s start at the most basic question: What IS the Bible? I want to answer that question from two perspectives—externally and internally. What do people say about the Bible, how can we as human beings identify what this Book is. Then, what does the Bible say about itself?

Psalm 107 is both a psalm of thanksgiving for God’s goodness and a song of testimony for the specific good things God has done for His people. It can help us understand that no matter what we face, regardless of life’s circumstances, God is faithful and true, good and loving, present and powerful. We can praise Him for His goodness, and we should proclaim His goodness to others. We all have a testimony of thanksgiving to share in our worship to God and our witness of God to others.

In Psalm 13, David helps us express the very real and raw emotions we may have in seasons where it feels like God is distant and doesn't hear our prayers. Through this song of lament, we can learn how to keep praying in faithfulness despite the frustration and doubt.

Psalm 119 is organized into 22 stanzas, one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. By organizing this psalm about God’s Word around the alphabet, you could say it literally instruct us in the ABC’s of God’s Word! The message of Psalm 119 is that the Bible is sufficient for all areas of life, from A to Z, and a life lived on God’s Word is a life as ordered and reliable as the alphabet. Two major themes emerge: WHY we should value the Word of God and HOW we show that we value the Word of God.

In Psalm 29, we saw God as enthroned over nature—the Lord is enthroned over the Flood. He is King over the storm, as His voice thunders throughout the Land. Today, we will discover in Psalm 47 that God is also enthroned over the nations—He is the King over all peoples, kingdoms, armies, and leaders. Psalm 47 teaches us how to approach the battles of life—before, during, and after, with trust in, worship to, and proclamation of our Warrior King.

Psalm 29 is a beautiful psalm and great example of Hebrew poetry, yet is often neglected. Through this psalm, David celebrates our God who is the omnipotent King and Lord above the storms. He challenges us to acknowledge and worship our awesome God who is King over all Creation. This psalm teaches us important truths about who, why, and how we worship.

Psalms 111 and 112 together remind us of God’s blessings on His people, and His expectations of His people. While these psalms are about God’s blessings on and expectations of the people of Israel, we can apply them to ourselves today, and I think they especially apply to men who are husbands, fathers, leaders, and mentors.

This sermon in the Psalms is connected to our church's VBS theme for this year: SCUBA--Diving into Friendship with God. We could spend lifetimes searching and studying the ocean depths. Scientists are constantly finding new forms of life in the deepest, darkest reaches of the seas. We can spend not only our lifetimes, but all of eternity searching out God's wisdom and ways, and still not fully plumb their depths! Our friendship with God—an adventure that will never end, a treasure chest we’ll never fully unpack! There’s no better psalm to pair with this VBS theme than Psalm 139, in which David seeks to understand the depths and heights of his relationship with the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God!

A.W. Tozer wrote, “God wants worshippers before workers; indeed, the only acceptable workers are those who have learned the art of worship.” Tozer was commenting on our tendency to elevate serving the Lord as workers above serving the Lord as worshippers. If we’re not careful, worship becomes a performance, a job to accomplish. We can allow our egos and preferences to get in the way. When that happens, who or what are we actually worshipping? God, ourselves, or other people’s approval? Psalms is a great place to turn to evaluate our hearts, motivations, and understanding of worship. In this message, we look at Psalms 100 and 150, two of the best-known hymns of thanksgiving and praise in the Bible, to help us master the art of worship.

Just as Psalm 1 gives us the purpose of the Book of Psalms, Psalm 2 reveals the message of the Psalms: that no matter what is happening in our lives or world, God is on His throne, and He invites us to live as citizens of His eternal Kingdom. Through this messianic psalm of hope, we discover how we can respond to world around us with confidence and compassion, trusting that Jesus is King and is coming again!

In this first sermon in this series of messages from the Psalms, we discover how Psalm 1 introduces us to the overall purpose of the Psalms: to reveal how God's instruction is the pathway to a life of blessing and abundance, of happiness and holiness. The psalmist presents two pathways we can chose to walk down--an ascending path that leads to the presence of God where we experience the abundant life Jesus promises, or the spiraling descent into depravity and corruption that ends in ruin. Which path are you walking?

Jesus’ longest prayer is found in John 17—the High Priestly Prayer. Jesus prayed this on the night He was betrayed. This sermon focuses on Jesus’ priorities, the kinds of things Jesus prays for His followers—for us! This can give us some clues as to what we should prioritize in our prayers.

Through Luke, we see that Jesus is the perfect Son of Man, what Paul calls the new and better Adam, and how He came to serve and save by God’s transforming power. And in today’s passage, we will see how Jesus meets us at our greatest point of need, in our lowest moments, and sees us through seasons of suffering.

It's no surprise that Jesus calls Christians to have a servant attitude and to be generous with our time and resources. But we can struggle to follow Jesus’s example of selfless service. We sometimes need a refresher to sharpen our skills as servants of God. Following the Mount of Transfiguration, Jesus uses the failure of the disciples to cast out a demon to illustrate the qualities and attitudes we need if we are going to follow His example and have the heart of a servant.

In this new sermon series, we will look at a snapshot of Jesus from each of the four Gospel accounts, focusing on how that Gospel writer emphasizes an aspect of Jesus's character and/or ministry. In this message, we look at King Jesus and what He preached about God's Kingdom using parables. Matthew 13 contains several parables about what the Kingdom of God is like and how we relate and connect to the Kingdom.

Easter changes everything! We serve a Living Lord and one day we will join Him in Heaven and enjoy Him for all eternity. But that’s not the whole story. We must not only look to Jesus for a ticket to Heaven. Like Mary, we have an opportunity to encounter the risen Jesus TODAY! And that encounter has the power to change everything in our lives and in our world. I want to challenge us to think about Jesus’ Resurrection and how an encounter with the Living Lord can give us new life right now—not just for eternity, but for every day!

The Garden of Gethsemane was a favorite spot for Jesus and His disciples to spend time together when they came to Jerusalem. It is a beautiful garden, a peaceful garden perfectly suited for prayer. But it is far more than that. It was a garden of pressure, prayer, and priorities. Through this message, we discover what Jesus faced that night out of love for us and submission to the Father's will, we see a pattern for our prayers, and are forced to examine our priorities.