First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

It's easy today for Moms in particular to feel stressed and depressed, burned-out, and like they're coasting on fumes. 2 Kings 4 tells us the story of a single mom who was literally running on empty. Her world was falling apart, and she was in danger of losing her family. Her story teaches us that no matter our problems, God has a plan. Just as God took care of this widowed mother of two, He will take care of you. When your cup seems empty and your battery is drained, there is help and there is hope.

As we look at what Southern Baptists believe about evangelism and missions, we look at the Great Commission as found in Matthew 28. In this sermon, I break it down into a simple, easy-to-remember format:1-3-3--one command with three principles and three promises.

When it comes to the doctrine of Last Things, God wants us to focus on the fact that Jesus will return, and how we are to live in the reality of His future return, not obsessively worrying over the details of how, when, and where. In this message we focus on the basic truths we can know about Last Things (eschatology) and how we should live in light of those truths.

Some people today want to discount the historicity of the Resurrection and focus on the “spiritual truth” behind it. But truth at the very least must be factual and rooted in what is real. If the Resurrection didn’t happen in time and space, what difference could a Risen Christ make in our lives and world? We cannot have a meaningful Christian experience apart from the truth that Jesus literally, bodily rose from the dead!

As we think about Jesus entering the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we should focus on Jesus as the one and only narrow gate through which we must pass to have life eternal and abundant. In this message, we focus on Jesus as the Gate through which we gain access to God.

The Kingdom of God is both the theme Jesus taught on the most, and it is the most often misunderstood by His followers. What is the Bible talking about when it mentions the Kingdom of God/Heaven? What difference does the Kingdom have in our lives as we seek to live for Jesus in a day and age where there are so many kingdoms competing for our allegiance? We will discover the answers to these questions through this look into God's Word.

Is the Lord’s Day only a Christianized Sabbath Day, or is it about something else? Are we as New Testament Christians bound to the keep Sabbath as the Israelites did under the Old Covenant? What does the Bible have to say about worship on the first day of the week? We will unpack the history, meaning, and observance of Sunday as a day of worship in this message.

Some Christians wonder if the church is relevant anymore. Can’t they worship, love, and serve Jesus without belonging to a local church? Can’t they just “do church” online—on their own terms? These questions reveal an ignorance of the doctrine of the church and why the church matters to our faith, growth, and God’s redemptive mission in the world. In this message we'll look at the Nature, Purpose, and Power of the church in our lives and God's mission in the world.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are signs and symbols of that salvation. Whenever someone is baptized or we partake of the Lord’s Supper, it’s like we are acting out a parable. We are using all our senses to experience, remember, and proclaim the truth of the Gospel. And both ordinances not only remember the past, but they anticipate what is yet to come when Christ returns.

The Gospel is about a great exchange—taking away our filthy, unrighteous garments, and giving us a new wardrobe—robes of righteousness so we can stand before a Holy God. Paul’s clearest explanation of God’s redemptive mission and the plan of Salvation is found in Romans. In this sermon, we use passages from Romans 1-3 to examine the truth that Jesus alone saves, and He saves all who come to Him in repentance and faith.

Once we know Who God is and what God does, then we can more accurately answer, “What is man?” for what we believe about humanity flows directly from what we believe about God. The #1 theological issue of today, the Christian doctrine most debated and under attack, is the doctrine of mankind. And the implications of our view of humanity is enormous, ranging in issues from families, marriage, gender, racism, government policies, abortion, medical ethics, the justice system, etc. It is vitally important we get this right!

There are lots of misconceptions and fears about God the Spirit. Disagreements and debates about the what the Spirit is like and what He does swirl around churches and denominations. In this sermon, I aim to help us gain a clearer understanding of what the Spirit is like and what He does in our lives—His attributes and activities.

Jesus reveals the Father both in who He is—Jesus IS God, just as the Father IS God; and in what He does. In other words, we can know God’s attributes and His activities—WHO God is and WHAT God does through Jesus! In this sermon, I look at Philippians 2:5-11 to give us a 30,000-foot overview of God the Son.

In this sermon, we explore the mysterious truth of the triune God. What does it mean for God to be Three Persons in one Godhead? We look at the personal attributes of the Father, Son, and Spirit that are united in the singular divine essence, nature, and being of the One God. Then, we look at God the Father. When the Bible talks about God as Father, it's vital we let Scripture define what that means—what kind of Father is our God? How does He embody and model Fatherhood for us? How can we know and relate to God the Father?

A.W. Tozer said that what we think about God is one of the most important things about us. In this message, we look at the core truth that God of the Bible is the only One Living and True God, and we can know what God is like and we can experience His activity in the world.

In this sermon, we continue to explore what it means for the Bible to be God's inspired, written Word, how it points us toward salvation and enables our sanctification, and that it is truth without any mixture of error. How can trust any of the Bible, if we can't trust all of the Bible? It has authority over our lives because it has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter.

My goal in this sermon series is to help us determine if we are embracing, teaching, and living by “sound doctrine.” And to help us do this, I’ll be using the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. In this first message, we look at the bedrock of all our theology--the Bible, God's inspired and written Word. Particularly, we talk about what it means for the Bible to have God as its Author.

Psalm 34 can give us guidance in how we should pray and plan for a new year as followers of Jesus.

On this first Sunday after Christmas, we look at the significance of the gifts the Magi brought to the child Jesus. And we ask ourselves, what kind of gifts are we bringing the Lord? Are we giving God our best, or our leftovers? Are we giving God our all, or only what's convenient?

In this message we consider how Jesus is the Final and Ultimate Fulfillment of God’s Good News of great joy to all people! The Old Testament law, sacrifices, temple, and prophecies were all meant to point the way to Jesus.