First Presbyterian Church Of Baton Rouge

They left their flocks, their usual life, and made haste to Bethlehem. Because they repented. They changed their minds about the comfort of a settled life and went to kneel before the unlikely infant King. And then they told everyone. So it goes around the world and through the centuries. One to one, heart to heart. The glory of God has been revealed in a helpless child lying in a manger. Repent, turn from yourself, and you will be enabled to see that this child is the King, the fulfillment of all our hopes. The joy of all our desiring. "Leveling the Field" Isaiah 40: 1-5 Gerrit Dawson

The baby in Mary’s womb was the new David. He was the heir to the everlasting promise. Through Jesus, after all these centuries, the eternal kingdom would be ushered in. No accident then when Jesus claimed his roots in David the Shepherd King as he declared, “I am the Good Shepherd. I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10). This is the one for whom they had been waiting a thousand years. He would be the King of Peace. "Life from a Stump" Isaiah 11: 1-9 Gerrit Dawson

This Advent we’re going to trace the thread of hope that runs through Scripture. It goes all the way back to the first book of the Bible. We’re going to look at some of the prophecies that foretold the coming of a savior to God’s people. Some of these prophecies are just hints, precious clues to which people clung as they waited for God to act. Some are bright proclamations that set our heart singing. We’re going to start with some of the oldest promises of a champion and consider how they were fulfilled in Jesus. Genesis 3: 15 Numbers 24:17 Deuteronomy 18: 15-18

The gospel takes down our walls of self-reliance. It exposes our folly and our need. But then, almost at the same time, the gospel gives us the assurance that God loves us and is with us and will see us through. Weapons of Our War 2 Corinthians 10: 1-6 Gerrit Dawson

You can’t earn it, manipulate it, manufacture it or buy it. You can only receive it. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Is he stirring you now? Is he recreating life in you this moment? Do you see him waiting in the doorway with arms open wide? Do you see him smiling and shouting out your name, “Get in this house!” Go now. Do it today. Accept Jesus in faith.

We should all consider giving a form of worship! Darin Travis 2 Corinthians 9: 5-15

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor. So that by his poverty, you might become rich. Once again, Paul has put the whole gospel into one sentence. Think of what he’s saying. You know what grace is. Grace is the story of Jesus. He is the eternal Son of God who lived in the riches of eternity. But because we were lost in sin and death, he came to find us. He stripped himself of glory and became poor. He was born in humility and lived in obscurity. He made his way as a working man in a backwater town. He gave away his love, his time, and his energy as he went about healing and forgiving. He gave us life in the ultimate humiliation of crucifixion. The Lord of glory died a disgraceful death. And he did it for you. For your sake he became poor. So that out of his suffering we might have forgiveness. Out of his disgrace, mankind might be restored. Out of his death, we might have life. He makes us rich with eternal life, forgiveness of sins, and every s

The Christian hope is astounding. Paradoxical. Glorious. God became man. The eternal Son of God took up our humanity. He entered time. He entered the world as one of us. Paul writes elsewhere that in Jesus, God was “taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2: 7-8). God wanted to do something about the plight of the creatures he had made. But he didn’t just want to issue commands from on high. God wanted to change us from the inside out. So he determined to work from within the human race. He came to us as one of us. Jesus was really a man of flesh and blood like every other person. But an ordinary person could not truly affect the course of all humanity. How could what one man did be powerful in every woman and man’s life? Only if that man was also God. Only if that man was also the creator of every man and woman. Only if that man acted not just as an isolated ma

The Christian vision of the life to come is unique and thrilling. No other religion or philosophy approaches our hope. We profess, “I believe in the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.” What do we mean by that? "Putting Some Color in Death's Cheeks!" 2 Corinthians 5: 1-7 October 1, 2017 Gerrit Dawson

If you had a beam of light from God’s eternal glory, why would you put it in a brittle ceramic jar? That’s exactly what God does. There is a treasure given to human beings: the ability to see who Jesus is and to love him for it. That knowledge lights up our souls into eternity. But we who have such knowledge live in these aging, decaying, limited, frail mortal bodies. “We have this treasure in jars of clay” says Paul. 2 Corinthians 4: 7-15 Gerrit Dawson

If you know Christ, rejoice. A marvelous act of second creation has occurred. The God who said ‘Let light shine out of the darkness’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God shining in the face of Jesus Christ. If you don’t know Christ, ask yourself in this moment, “Is he creating faith in me right now? Is he shining his light and opening my eyes? Will I cooperate with this work?” And if you know this, pray. Pray that others would have their eyes opened. And be available to share the story. In this way you will know the double joy of seeing God create faith out of doubt, seeing God bring out of death everlasting life. "The Shining Face of God" Gerrit Dawson 2 Corinthians 4: 1-6

Most of us have played checkers in our lives. Well, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 3 makes several daring checker-like leaps landing on the best play of all: When we look away from ourselves toward Jesus, the veil covering our hearts is lifted and we enter the presence of God. And everything changes. "When One Turns to the Lord" Gerrit Dawson 2 Corinthians 3: 12-18

Whether we live or die we are the Lord’s….forever. Everything is going to be OK. We are in the triumphal procession. We are the fragrance of Christ everywhere and the aroma of Christ to God. What a great and gracious God we have. In this present darkness, He gives us life and victory and calls us to follow Him in the triumphal parade. AMEN! "The Aroma of Christ" 2 Corinthians 2: 12-17 Barry Phillips

Truth and love from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians. We’re called to be doing life together. For this season of our lives, God has placed us together. We’re forming an alternate community to the madness in the world so that the lost and weary can see a better way. The loving life of the church is the witness to the God who is love. We’re called to be a body growing organically. We’re called to a vivid life of shedding tears for each other, of laughing together over the wonder of our savior, of knowing abundant joy and abounding forgiveness. This is the way God decided to do it. To create his church in the midst of all the messy conflicts, the predictable failings and the constant striving. It takes work. It takes faithful commitment. But we know, deep in our bones, that this is the community we long for in a lonely world. This is the struggle and the joy of belonging to each other in Christ.