Faith Bible Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Faith Bible Church
Pastor Russell Johnson opened with Fletcher Reede in the 1997 film Liar Liar, a man who cannot make his hand write a lie about the pen he is holding. He said Romans 7 runs the same way in reverse: we want to do right and find ourselves doing the opposite. Turning to Romans 8:1-8, Pastor Russell traced a tightly argued chain. The word behind "no condemnation" points less to the verdict than to the sentence being carried out, and the old sentence is the one Ephesians 2:1-3 describes. We have been pardoned, yet we keep showing up at the old prison asking for our old cell. Verse 2 answers with a higher law, the law of the Spirit of life, and verse 3 with a Son sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, so that verse 4 can call us to walk rather than work. Using a doll held down by gravity and lifted by balloons, Pastor Russell pictured prayer, Scripture, worship, and community tied on one at a time. Romans 8:5-8 gives the mechanism: setting the mind. Borrowing an image from Jonathan Haidt, whom he was careful not to endorse, he described a rider on an elephant. We do not wrestle the elephant. We aim it, daily, until desire follows.
Pastor Russell Johnson opened in Romans 8:26-28 with a memory from his years as a young youth pastor in Winnsboro, when a girl in his ministry lost her grandfather and met him in the hospital hallway, screaming and without words. Pastor Russell said those speechless moments are exactly where we experience the active presence of God. Our trouble in prayer is a content problem rather than a technique problem: we do not know what to ask for, and Paul includes himself in that weakness. The word Paul chooses describes physical frailty, an inherent limitation rather than a moral failure. Romans 8 records three groans: creation groaning under futility, believers groaning as we wait for the redemption of our bodies, and the Spirit Himself groaning too deep for words. These are labor pains, not death pains. The Spirit takes our stumbling prayers and pleads our case before the Father, while Christ intercedes at His right hand. Because the Father searches hearts and knows the mind of the Spirit, our prayers cannot arrive garbled. Pastor Russell closed with David in Psalm 139, who moved from being searched to inviting the search, and with an invitation into the Vision 2030 season of prayer and fasting.
Pastor Rick Wilcox introduced the Holy Spirit as our Teacher, and the better Teacher at that. He opened with Dr. Al Collins, the professor who wrote Hugh B. Brown's prayer on the blackboard, "from the arrogance that thinks it has all truth, O God of truth, deliver us," and who corrected a fiery eighteen-year-old by planting a seed and walking away rather than arguing. Pastor Rick then turned to the Gospel of John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us what Jesus did; John tells us who He is, written by an old man setting down what had not yet been said. That brought us to Thursday night in the upper room, where Jesus, hours from the cross, spent His last teaching hours on the Holy Spirit. Working through John 14 through 16, Pastor Rick showed why this Teacher surpasses the finest human one. He abides with us and in us. He does not hand us new information; He turns on the light over the Word already written. And He guides continuously, disclosing what is to come, which is far more often our next step than a distant horizon.
Elder Drew Howard opened Week 7 of "Ruach to Pneuma" by drawing a careful distinction that builds on last week: being indwelled by the Holy Spirit and being filled with Him are not the same thing. Indwelling, he explained from Ephesians 1:13, is the seal every believer receives at salvation, permanent, unconditional, and positional. Filling, from Ephesians 5:18, is His influence, and it is repeatable, conditional, and experiential, rising and falling with our response to Him. Working through the account of the ark of God in First and Second Samuel, Drew showed both the warning and the way. Israel first treated the ark as a good luck charm, carrying it into battle to force God's hand, and the result was disaster, defeat, the ark captured, and a child named Ichabod, "the glory has departed." His first warning landed there: God is not a genie in a bottle or a Santa Claus, and we must never use Him as a token to get what we want. Then, tracing David's life, Drew drew out five marks of a Spirit-filled life. Live out the calling God has given you, using your gifts for His glory. Inquire of the Lord and seek His will rather than your own. Seek your answers in the Word and live according to it, as David learned when moving the ark carelessly brought death and moving it God's way brought blessing. Sing songs of praise that fill the heart, as David danced before the Lord with all his might. And own it, be unashamed of being filled with the Spirit, even under the contemptuous gaze of David's wife Michal. Drew was honest that being filled can look a little crazy to a watching world, a Bible open on your desk at work, a mission trip instead of a vacation, and that this is exactly the point. He closed with a final warning drawn from Michal: be careful how you judge others who are worshiping in the Spirit.
Pastor Russell Johnson opened Week 6 of "Ruach to Pneuma" with the season he and Terri were expecting their twins: preterm labor at 24 weeks, eight weeks of hospital bed rest an hour from home, and both grandmothers moving in two weeks at a time to bring the family stability, security, and assurance. That became his picture for the morning, the permanent Resident every believer carries. Walking through Romans 8:9-11, he showed that Paul's repeated "if" is not doubt but settled fact: if you belong to Christ, the Spirit already dwells in you, not as a second stage or a reward for the advanced, but as the immediate consequence of saving faith. He is a Resident, not a guest, and the same Spirit who raised Jesus now lives in you. From Ephesians 1:13-14, Pastor Russell then opened the seal along three lines: security that only a greater authority could break, ownership that marks you as bought and belonging, and a down payment, the Greek arrabon, the first installment of an inheritance guaranteed to be paid in full. You cannot grieve Him away or fail Him away. You are sealed for the day of redemption, and the invitation is to stop striving for a security you already possess.
Student Pastor Eric Wischmann opened Week 5 of "Ruach to Pneuma" by reflecting on the birth of his daughter Ivy in April and how becoming a father, as becoming a husband and a pastor before it, exposed his weakness and reminded him of the cycles we carry and pass down, good and bad. He named struggles many of us feel powerless against, including anger, insecurity, addiction, and arrogance, and asked how we break these cycles. His answer was that cycles are not broken by trying harder; they are broken when God makes someone new. Turning to John 3, Pastor Eric walked through three truths about the new birth: its necessity, its means, and its gift.
Pastor Eric then explained the new birth as a gift. Jesus pointed Nicodemus to Ezekiel's promise of a new heart and new spirit, and to the bronze serpent in the wilderness, where dying people were healed by looking in faith at what God lifted up. In the same way, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross, and whoever believes in Him has eternal life from the moment of belief. This gift is unconditional and undeserved, purchased entirely by Christ, and adding any of our own credit denies the sufficiency of His work and the Spirit's work. He closed by saying we are no longer slaves to sin. The cycles that have felt unstoppable can end because the Spirit now lives in us, and the church should live so changed that others notice, as people who take responsibility for their sin, seek help, and live as new creations in Christ.
Pastor Jamey Bryant opened Week 4 of "Ruach to Pneuma" with Thomas Paine's pamphlet "Common Sense," the little document that, written in plain language a farmer or shopkeeper could read aloud in a tavern, fanned the colonists' quiet discontent into an open flame and helped birth a nation we are about to celebrate at 250 years. He used it to point to a far greater catalytic moment: Pentecost, the birth of the church and the day the Holy Spirit came to indwell God's people and never left. Walking through Acts 2, Pastor Jamey set the scene with the disciples waiting in the upper room for ten days, doing exactly what Jesus told them to do, holding onto His promise that it was to their advantage that He go away so the Spirit could come. He reminded us that Pentecost itself predates the church, an ancient harvest festival tied to God's provision and the giving of the Law, which makes the wind and fire of Acts 2 all the more fitting: just as God gave the Law with fire at Sinai, He now gave a gift greater than the Law, the Spirit, with fire as the sign of His indwelling presence. Then came the tongues, and here Pastor Jamey was careful. This was not chaos or babbling, but real, known languages, each visitor from across the world suddenly hearing these common Galileans declare the mighty works of God in his own heart language. The Spirit chose to reach each person at the heart level, and the whole purpose was to shine the spotlight not on the speakers, not even on Himself, but on Jesus.
From there, Pastor Jamey turned to Peter, transformed. Fifty days after denying Jesus three times, Peter stood before thousands and boldly proclaimed Him, declaring that the One they crucified God had raised and made both Lord and Christ. The crowd was pierced to the heart and cried out, "What shall we do?" Pastor Jamey took time with Peter's answer in Acts 2:38, the call to repent and be baptized, and walked carefully through how it holds together with salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. He showed that the people had already believed by the end of Peter's sermon and that Peter was calling that specific generation, guilty of rejecting the Father's, the Son's, and the Spirit's testimony, to come out from under judgment. He reminded us that Acts is a transitional book, a little messy as the early believers figured things out in real time, and that we get into trouble when we build an entire theology on one snapshot rather than reading it alongside the rest of the New Testament. He closed with the wonder of it: three thousand souls added that day, a church devoted to teaching, fellowship, breaking bread, and prayer, and the same Spirit who indwelt and empowered them still indwelling us, still giving boldness, still sending the gospel out, and still inviting us to participate today.
On Sunday, Dr. Ezequiel Serrato, who serves Faith Bible Church as Director of Spanish Ministry, opened Week 2 of "Ruach to Pneuma" by greeting the church in Spanish and inviting the familiar Latin American response, bendecidos, "we are blessed." Picking up where Pastor Russell left off, he reminded us that the Holy Spirit is not an it but a Person, the third Person of the Trinity, and that we come to know a person by what He does. So he walked us through three things the Spirit did in the Old Testament. First, creation. In Genesis 1:1-2 the Spirit of God was "moving over the surface of the waters," and Dr. Serrato opened that Hebrew picture of brooding, hovering, the way a bird cherishes her young, the Spirit bringing life and order out of a dark and formless void. If He can do that with the chaos of an unformed universe, Dr. Serrato pressed, imagine what He can do with the chaos in a marriage or a life that feels hopeless. Second, empowerment. He showed how the Spirit came upon judges and kings like Othniel, Gideon, Samson, and Saul for a season and a task, and how that presence could depart, which is why a broken David pleaded, "Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." Then he drew the line we live on this side of: unlike Saul or Samson, the believer today is indwelt permanently, and even when we sin, the Spirit does not leave. Third, revelation. The same Spirit who empowered the hands of judges inspired the tongues of prophets, carrying along fallible men so that what they spoke and wrote was the very Word of God. He closed with a charge that landed plainly. God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called, just as He did with a slow-of-speech Moses and a cowardly Peter. The Spirit who hovered over the waters is the same Spirit alive in you, and He will never leave.
Pastor Russell Johnson preached through Nehemiah 10, the chapter where Israel's confession and prayer from chapter 9 become a signed, public covenant. Pastor Russell opened with two stories about the weight of putting your name on something — the fifty-six men who signed the Declaration of Independence knowing their signatures were evidence of treason, and his own experience as a newlywed sitting in a Ford dealership in Grand Prairie, Texas, physically nauseous as he initialed page after page of a car loan. "That's what a signature does. It turns desires into commitment." Eighty-four leaders affixed their seals to a document, and then the rest of the community — wives, sons, daughters, everyone old enough to understand — joined in, taking on themselves "a curse and an oath to walk in God's law." Pastor Russell stressed this was not an attempt to earn God's love but a response to the extravagant grace of chapter 9: "Biblical repentance is not about trying to clean yourself up so God will finally accept you. It's responding to God honestly enough that your direction begins to change." He walked through three specific commitments the people made. First, a marriage commitment — refusing intermarriage with pagan nations, not as a racial prohibition but as a protection of distinctive worship, with Solomon as the cautionary example. Second, a Sabbath commitment — refusing to buy from merchants on the Sabbath, letting the land rest every seventh year, and canceling debts, all of which cost something real and required trusting God to provide. Third, a worship commitment — funding the temple through annual contributions, organizing firewood supply ("no wood, no worship"), bringing firstfruits, and tithing, with the phrase "house of our God" appearing nine times. Pastor Russell closed with Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus — secret followers who finally went on the record at the cross, in daylight, with everyone watching — and asked the congregation: "Where do you need to make a specific commitment to honor God in response to His faithfulness?"
Pastor Russell Johnson preached through Nehemiah 9, the longest prayer in the Old Testament and the spiritual climax of the book. Pastor Russell opened with the story of Bill Miller — a man who in 1940 crashed his car into a snowbank at 110 miles an hour and was pulled out by a stranger named Warren Felty. Five years later, Miller collapsed during a POW march through Germany, and Warren Felty dragged him back to his feet. Years after that, Felty showed up at a roadside diner and solved Miller's career problem. "At some point, you just stop being surprised. The man cannot shake Warren Felty." That, Pastor Russell said, is the story of Nehemiah 9 — except the one who keeps showing up is God, and the nation that spent centuries trying to shake Him could not. Two days after the Feast of Tabernacles, the people assembled in sackcloth and dust, alternating three hours of Scripture reading with three hours of confession and worship. The Levites led them through Israel's entire history — creation, Abraham, Egypt, Sinai, the wilderness, the conquest — with God as the subject of every sentence and every verb: He chose, He called, He saw, He divided, He led, He gave. Then two words pivoted the prayer: "But they." Five times a version of that phrase appeared, each followed by arrogance, idolatry, rebellion, and the killing of prophets. And each time, God showed back up. "You, in Your great compassion, did not forsake them." The prayer landed on three centuries of hardship and a sentence most people will move mountains to avoid: "You have dealt faithfully, but we have acted wickedly. You were right, and we were wrong." Then it simply stopped. No formal petition. No neat request. Just a nation standing before God and looking up. Pastor Russell closed with three applications: let the history of God's faithfulness inform your present faith, make confession specific rather than vague, and know that "you cannot shake God — His goodness is not triggered by our performance. It is His character."
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 8 and a crisis that came from inside the community rather than from its enemies. Pastor Russell opened with the story of American contractors from Vermont and New York during the War of 1812 who supplied two-thirds of the advancing British army because the profits were too good to refuse — "myopic, self-defeating, and imprudent at the deepest level." Before entering the text, he established Proverbs 9:10 as the lens for the chapter, defining wisdom as "the skill of living well" and the fear of the Lord as "a settled, life-shaping orientation toward God." He then walked through three layers of economic devastation inside Jerusalem — families unable to eat, landowners mortgaging everything to survive a famine, and families whose children were already enslaved to pay crushing debts — all caused by wealthy Jewish nobles exploiting their own people. Pastor Russell called it "what the absence of the fear of God produces — it makes you dumb and can even make you mean." He traced Nehemiah's response as wisdom in action: anger proportional to the wrong, deliberate reflection before speaking, a public assembly to confront a community-wide sin, and an immediate demand for full restoration. He then walked through Nehemiah's twelve-year record as governor — declining his food allowance, feeding 150 people daily at his own expense, refusing to acquire land — all driven by the fear of God rather than political calculation. Pastor Russell closed with an honest acknowledgment that injustice among God's people is real, a direct apology to those wounded by the church, and a Dallas Willard quote defining disciples as "people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus."
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 5 and a crisis that came from inside the community rather than from its enemies. Pastor Russell opened with the story of American contractors from Vermont and New York during the War of 1812 who supplied two-thirds of the advancing British army because the profits were too good to refuse — "myopic, self-defeating, and imprudent at the deepest level." Before entering the text, he established Proverbs 9:10 as the lens for the chapter, defining wisdom as "the skill of living well" and the fear of the Lord as "a settled, life-shaping orientation toward God." He then walked through three layers of economic devastation inside Jerusalem — families unable to eat, landowners mortgaging everything to survive a famine, and families whose children were already enslaved to pay crushing debts — all caused by wealthy Jewish nobles exploiting their own people. Pastor Russell called it "what the absence of the fear of God produces — it makes you dumb and can even make you mean." He traced Nehemiah's response as wisdom in action: anger proportional to the wrong, deliberate reflection before speaking, a public assembly to confront a community-wide sin, and an immediate demand for full restoration. He then walked through Nehemiah's twelve-year record as governor — declining his food allowance, feeding 150 people daily at his own expense, refusing to acquire land — all driven by the fear of God rather than political calculation. Pastor Russell closed with an honest acknowledgment that injustice among God's people is real, a direct apology to those wounded by the church, and a Dallas Willard quote defining disciples as "people who are constantly revising their affairs to carry through on their decision to follow Jesus.
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 4 and the escalating opposition that met the builders as the wall went up. Pastor Russell opened with a story from his college days hauling hay with his father-in-law Ken, who taught him to always roll a bale of hay toward himself before picking it up in case something was hiding underneath. One day he rolled a bale back to find a nest of baby barn owls — wings outstretched, chests puffed out, beaks clicking — doing everything they could to look big and scary. Pastor Russell compared those puffed-up owls to Nehemiah's enemies: "lots of noise and bravado." He organized the chapter around a repeated pattern — the opposition hears something they don't like, there is anger and posturing, and that posturing is met with an expression of faith. In the first round, Sanballat rolled up to the construction site with a military escort and launched five mocking questions while Tobiah added his one-liner about a fox breaking the wall down. Nehemiah's response was not a clever comeback but prayer, taking the offense to God rather than retaliating. Pastor Russell noted that "the most powerful response to ridicule is not a witty comeback — it's continuing to work." In the second round, the coalition expanded to surround Jerusalem on all sides, and ridicule escalated into threats of violence. Worse, three internal voices — tired workers, threatening enemies, and frightened friends from outlying communities — began singing the same song: stop building. Nehemiah responded with both trust and action, stationing armed men at the vulnerable points and recasting the vision: "Do not be afraid of them; remember the Lord who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives and your houses." In the final section, after God frustrated the enemies' plan, Nehemiah did not relax but got more organized — splitting workers into builders and guards, assigning weapons alongside tools, posting a trumpeter beside him as a rally signal, extending the workday from "dawn until the stars appeared," and requiring workers to sleep inside Jerusalem. Pastor Russell emphasized the "both-and" of mature faith: "He organizes it because he trusts God and because he understands that God works through prepared and faithful people." He concluded with Nehemiah sleeping in his clothes, sword within reach, the wall half done and the work still going: "Don't be afraid. Remember the Lord who is great and awesome. And fight. Let's keep building."
On Easter Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson explored Hebrews 10:10-14 through the powerful imagery of "3 Chairs"—asking the question that matters most: "Do you have a chair?" Pastor Russell opened with a humorous story about his mom and aunt getting in trouble at a nursing home over someone's chair, then pivoted to the profound truth that sitting down represents finished work. He walked through the Old Testament priests who had no chair because "their work was never complete"—standing daily, offering repeatedly, the same sacrifices that "can never take away sins." Pastor Russell connected this to the Ezra-Nehemiah series, showing how those books end with spiritual work still "unfinished" and pointing forward to someone who would complete it. Then Jesus showed up! Pastor Russell declared that Christ "offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins" and "sat down at the right hand of God"—the place of highest honor, authority, and approval. The stunning conclusion from Ephesians 2:4-6 is that because Jesus sat down, we get a chair too: "Seated us WITH HIM. Not someday. Not after you perform well enough. Right now!" Pastor Russell invited everyone to stop striving and rest in the finished work of Christ.
On Sunday, Pastor Lance Terry continued through the book of Nehemiah by covering chapter 3 and asking one central question: "What does it take to build?" Pastor Lance opened with the story of the Galveston seawall — how after the devastating 1900 hurricane, different groups came together to plan, fund, and construct a massive seawall while raising much of the city by fifteen feet, completing much of the work in just two years. He then connected that engineering feat to the rebuilding of Jerusalem's walls, walking the congregation through a visual reconstruction of the wall section by section, gate by gate, noting that more than forty sections were rebuilt by leaders from different backgrounds and professions — priests, goldsmiths, perfumers, officials, and homeowners. Pastor Lance drew out three things the people needed to recognize in order to build. First, they had to recognize it was not just a brick and mortar project — the high priest Eliashib consecrated the wall at the very start, setting it apart as belonging to God and dedicated to His glory, not their own comfort or fame. Second, they had to recognize where they were vulnerable by strengthening the gates, since gates determined what came in and out of the city and represented their most exposed points. Pastor Lance applied this personally, sharing his family's decision about cell phones for his children and his experience with Re:gen's repentance planning process. Third, they had to recognize it was a group effort, highlighting the repeated phrase "next to him" throughout chapter 3, which painted a picture of everyone working shoulder to shoulder in the same direction. He noted that people of different professions stepped outside their normal work to build, and that most sections were built by the people who lived nearest to them. Pastor Lance concluded by connecting the sermon to a church work day the previous Saturday, where people who were "overqualified to spread mulch" joyfully showed up to serve, and challenged the congregation: "Don't sit back and watch while other people build. Jump in with us. Get to work. Let's keep building."
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Nehemiah, covering chapter 2 and the remarkable sequence of events that followed Nehemiah's four months of prayer. Pastor Russell opened with a personal story from 2015, when he was leading a church plant in San Saba, Texas — "the Pecan Capital of the world" — and needed a teaching job to support his family of seven. He and his leadership team prayed specifically for a job matching his teaching certificate, for an interview despite having no experience, and for a house big enough for five children in a tiny town, and God answered every one of those prayers in rapid succession. Pastor Russell then walked through Nehemiah 2, showing how prayer, planning, and the providence of God work together. When the king finally noticed Nehemiah's sadness — four months after his initial grief — Nehemiah was "very much afraid," because displaying sadness before the king was a serious breach of court etiquette and he was about to ask Artaxerxes to reverse his own official decree halting the rebuilding of Jerusalem. Pastor Russell highlighted the split-second prayer in verse 4 between the king's question and Nehemiah's answer, explaining that "these normally are the overflow of sustained prayer" and that "we expect God to steady us in the moment of crisis if we have no time with Him before the crisis arrives." Nehemiah's bold, detailed requests — for permission to go, letters of safe passage, and timber from the king's forest — revealed that he had spent his four months not only praying but planning, because "clarity of vision produces clarity of request." After arriving in Jerusalem with a military escort, Nehemiah conducted a secret nighttime inspection of the walls before making his pitch to the people — naming the shared reality plainly, standing with them in it as "we" rather than "you," and sharing the testimony of God's providence. The people responded immediately: "Let us arise and build." When the enemies Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem countered with ridicule and accusations of rebellion, Nehemiah's response was short and decisive: "The God of heaven will give us success; therefore we His servants will arise and build, but you have no portion, right or memorial in Jerusalem." Pastor Russell concluded by observing that "prayer, planning, and trusting in the providence of God produce boldness and courage.
Pastor Russell Johnson launched the book of Nehemiah, beginning with chapter 1. Pastor Russell set the historical context by explaining that Nehemiah's account picks up thirteen years after Ezra's arrival in Jerusalem, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes I (445 BC) — a king whose own father, Xerxes, had been assassinated in his bedchamber by a court attendant. When Nehemiah's brother Hanani arrived from Judah with news that "the remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire," Nehemiah's response was remarkable: he "sat down and wept and mourned for days." Pastor Russell challenged the modern assumption that emotional detachment equals strength, pointing out that "Jeremiah wept. Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Paul wept over the churches. And now Nehemiah weeps over a people he hasn't seen, in a city he only grew up hearing stories about." He walked through Nehemiah's four-month prayer — from Chislev to Nisan — showing how Nehemiah prayed the truth about God ("great and awesome...scary and dependable"), prayed the truth about himself by identifying with his people's sin rather than claiming personal exemption, prayed the promises of Scripture back to God from Deuteronomy 30, and finally prayed about his "one big thing" — asking God for favor before the most powerful king on earth. Pastor Russell highlighted that Nehemiah's prayer was not demanding of God but was a reminder to himself of what God had already committed to do. He concluded with the quiet revelation at the chapter's end — "Now I was the cupbearer to the king" — showing that God had been positioning Nehemiah for years, and that his comfort was never the point: "When the call came, Nehemiah was willing to trade his security for a dangerous mission on behalf of people he had never met, in a city he had never seen, because they were God's people, and that was enough."
Pastor Russell Johnson concluded the book of Ezra with chapter 10, the difficult resolution to the intermarriage crisis. The chapter opens with Shecaniah rising to encourage Ezra: "Yet now there is hope for Israel in spite of this... Arise! For this matter is your responsibility, but we will be with you; be courageous and act." Pastor Russell highlighted this as a model of how leaders sometimes need others to move them "from dejection to direction." Ezra then assembled all the people—standing in cold December rain, trembling inside and out—and confronted them directly: "You have been unfaithful." The people responded remarkably: "That's right! As you have said, so it is our duty to do." A three-month investigation followed, and the guilty were named publicly—priests, Levites, singers, and laypeople alike. Pastor Russell addressed the "elephants in the room": How does this fit with God's hatred of divorce? He explained this was "a unique situation in redemptive history" involving "the very survival of a faithful remnant," not a prescriptive pattern for today. The book ends somberly, with broken families and unfinished restoration—pointing us forward to Christ, who would come to "finish the spiritual work we could never do on our own."
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, exploring chapter 9 and the crisis that confronted Ezra upon his arrival in Jerusalem. The leaders reported devastating news: "The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands"—they had intermarried with pagan nations. Pastor Russell emphasized this was not racial prejudice but a matter of covenant fidelity, noting that "the hands of the princes and the rulers have been foremost in this unfaithfulness." He applied leadership principles—the Law of the Lid, the Law of the Picture, and Tone at the Top—to show how leadership failure corrupts an entire community. Ezra's response was visceral: tearing his garments, pulling his hair, and sitting "appalled until the evening offering" before falling to his knees in prayer. Pastor Russell walked through Ezra's remarkable prayer, which confesses corporate sin using "we" and "our," acknowledges God's abundant grace (survival, stability, encouragement, constancy, providence, protection), and ends abruptly with no petition—leaving the people "on the brink." He concluded by challenging us to examine our relationships, warning that "who we align ourselves with has a sure impact on our lives."
Pastor Lance Terry continued through Ezra, covering chapters 7 and 8 and introducing us to Ezra himself—nearly sixty years after the events of chapter 6. Pastor Lance highlighted Ezra's credentials: his priestly lineage tracing back to Aaron, his role as "a scribe skilled in the law of Moses," and the repeated phrase that "the hand of the Lord his God was upon him." Most significantly, Pastor Lance focused on Ezra 7:10, which he called Ezra's "mission statement": "Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel." Pastor Lance challenged us to consider our own mission, noting that "few things are worse than feeling aimless in life." When Ezra faced a dangerous 900-mile journey with significant wealth and no military escort, he chose to fast and pray rather than request the king's protection—because "we've been telling the king that God's hand will be on those who seek Him." Pastor Lance concluded by urging us to identify our unique, God-given mission and to "set our hearts" on living it out.
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, covering chapters 5 and 6 and the restart of temple construction after a sixteen-year delay. Pastor Russell used the "good cop, bad cop" analogy to describe how God sent two prophets—Haggai, who confronted the people's complacency and told them to "go to work," and Zechariah, who cast vision for God's future purposes and the coming "Branch." Together, their prophesying moved Zerubbabel and Jeshua to arise and rebuild. Pastor Russell highlighted the repeated use of the word "decree" throughout these chapters, showing that while Persian kings issued decrees, it was ultimately God's decree being fulfilled through them. He emphasized that "God's word is alive and active" and "energizes and works in those who receive it." The chapters culminate in the temple's completion and joyful celebration of Passover, prompting Pastor Russell to conclude with a powerful reminder: "We obey our way into feelings quicker than we feel our way into obedience."
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, exploring chapter 4 and the opposition that arose against the rebuilding of the temple. Pastor Russell opened with the story of Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission, who faced relentless opposition from family, mission societies, cultural hostility, illness, financial pressure, and personal grief—yet remained faithful. He explained that the enemies in Ezra 4 were Samaritans, descendants of foreign populations resettled by Assyria, who "feared the LORD and served their own gods." Pastor Russell showed how opposition moved from subtle ("Let us build with you") to overt (discouraging, frightening, hiring lobbyists) to sustained (accusations spanning multiple Persian kings). He emphasized that "opposition often appears as cooperation" and uses "spiritual language, appeals to peace, and promises efficiency, but it quietly undermines." Pastor Russell concluded by reminding us that "God's work will always encounter opposition" and that "the great causes of God and Humanity are not defeated by the hot assaults of the Devil, but by the slow, crushing, glacier-like mass of thousands and thousands of indifferent nobodies."
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through Ezra, exploring chapter 3 and the complex emotions surrounding Israel's restoration. Pastor Russell opened by noting that life is often "mixed, complex, and emotionally layered," and so is restoration—"it often comes with fear and faithfulness, sacrifice and supervision, and happy and sad all occupying the same space before God." He highlighted how the people gathered "as one man" to rebuild, reminding us that "the church needs you more than you think" and "you need the church more than you think." Pastor Russell emphasized that fear drove the people to worship rather than away from it, and that they began offering sacrifices "as it is written" even before the temple foundation was laid—challenging us to "just start" rather than waiting for perfect conditions. He concluded with the poignant scene of joy and weeping mingled together at the foundation laying, warning against letting unmet expectations turn into "contempt for what God is doing" and reminding us that "faithfulness matters more than spectacle."
Pastor Russell Johnson continued through the book of Ezra, exploring chapter 2 and its lengthy list of names. Pastor Russell opened with the story of Frances Cleveland, who confidently told White House staff to keep everything in order because "we are coming back just four years from today"—and they did. He explained that Ezra 2 carries that same tone of quiet confidence, reading "like a chapter written by people who believed exile was never the final word." Pastor Russell showed how the list connects to God's fourfold promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, demonstrating that "God is a stubborn promise-keeper" whose promises "have a certain inevitability about them, even in dark times." He highlighted that nearly 12% of the 42,360 returnees were devoted to temple service, revealing that "Ezra does not portray worship as an accessory to national recovery; it is the recovery." Pastor Russell concluded by introducing the concept of the remnant—the faithful few through whom God advances His redemptive plan—reminding us that "faithfulness is not measured by quantity but by obedience."
We launched a new series through the book of Ezra, beginning with Ezra chapter 1. Pastor Russell opened with an extended illustration about home remodeling projects, noting that "demo is so much fun and the easiest part of the whole process" but that putting things back together takes far longer and requires both resources and outside help. He walked through the sweeping arc of biblical history from creation to the eternal state, showing how Ezra fits into God's redemptive plan following Israel's 70-year exile in Babylon. Pastor Russell emphasized that God keeps His promises, fulfilling Jeremiah's prophecy exactly when He said He would. He highlighted the Hebrew word "stirred" (עוּר), showing how God worked through both the pagan king Cyrus and the hearts of His people to accomplish His purposes. Pastor Russell concluded by defining providence as "God's wise, purposeful governance of creation whereby He accomplishes His redemptive plans through human choice," challenging us to recognize and respond to God's stirring in our own lives.
On Sunday, Pastor Jamey Bryant explored Philippians 4:1-9 by examining "The Pathway to Impossible Peace"—the kind of peace that seems out of reach in our most strained relationships. Pastor Jamey opened with the remarkable story of the Christmas Truce of 1914, when British and German soldiers climbed out of their trenches and shook hands as friends, asking, "As we round the corner into 2026, don't you find yourself longing for Impossible Peace?" He walked through Paul's practical instructions to Euodia and Syntyche—two women in conflict whose dispute threatened the church's unity and gospel witness. Pastor Jamey outlined four steps to impossible peace: rejoice in the common bond we have in Christ, show gentleness because "the Judge is coming," stop being consumed by the conflict and give it to God in prayer, and dwell on what is true and praiseworthy about the other person. He reminded us that "unity among believers isn't optional—it's essential" and that "the ground is level at the foot of the cross." Pastor Jamey concluded by pointing us to Jesus as the One who forged this pathway to peace through His own blood at the cross.
Pastor Russell Johnson concluded the Daniel series by exploring Daniel 11-12, using the powerful image of WaterWorld's wave pool to illustrate the relentless nature of human history: "the waves didn't stop. They kept coming, bigger, harder, closer together." Pastor Russell walked through the stunning prophetic accuracy of Daniel 11:1-35, where specific historical figures from Persian and Greek empires are described centuries before they lived, declaring "hitting a bullet with a bullet idea. Here we are again, and again, and again!" He demonstrated how wave after wave of kingdoms rose and fell—Ptolemies, Seleucids, and ultimately Antiochus IV Epiphanes—all crashing through Israel with deception, violence, and persecution. Pastor Russell taught that behind this chaos stands God's sovereignty: "God determines even the terms of tyrannies, and they are restrained to the dates on God's calendar." He concluded with God's assurance to Daniel and to us: "Your duty is clear: go your way to the end; and your future is settled: you will enter into rest and rise again," reminding us that we have "an allotted place, an assigned space, designated for you in the resurrection age at the end of the days."
On Sunday, Pastor Jamey Bryant concluded the "Free" series by teaching from John 9, exploring Jesus as the Light of the World in the context of recent tragic events including violence in our communities. The sermon began with a powerful prayer time acknowledging that "our struggle is not against flesh and blood" but against spiritual darkness. Jamey walked through the blind man's healing at the Pool of Siloam during the Feast of Booths, showing how Jesus demonstrated He is both the Light of the World and the "Sent One" the ceremonies pointed to. Through multiple interrogations by neighbors and Pharisees, the blind man's understanding grew from knowing "the man named Jesus" to declaring "Lord, I believe" and worshiping Him. Jamey concluded with the challenge that we are now the light of the world, qualified to share our stories of grace with others who desperately need hope.
On Sunday, Pastor Russell Johnson began our 14-week journey through the book of Daniel with "Daniel and The Rest of the Bible," using Briton Riviere's 1872 masterpiece of Daniel in the lions' den to introduce this remarkable book. Pastor Russell emphasized that Daniel models for us what it looks like to maintain faithfulness to God when the world and culture around us are hostile to our biblical worldview, displaying "quiet confidence" in God even as a teenager while being "far from home in a strange land, with strange customs and strange gods." The sermon revealed both the historical reality of Judah's exile beginning in 605 BC and the theological truth that "the Lord gave Jehoiakim into Nebuchadnezzar's hand," demonstrating God's faithful humility as He was willing to suffer shame to awaken His people to their sin. Pastor Russell concluded by answering the question of what hasn't changed even though we find ourselves far from home: "God has not changed; he is still there, He is still present."
This summer, join us for the compelling story of Peter, one of Jesus' most relatable disciples. Together, we'll explore how Peter's meaningful encounters with Jesus reshaped him from an impulsive follower into a faithful leader.
Learn more: faithbible.church/peter
This summer, join us for the compelling story of Peter, one of Jesus' most relatable disciples. Together, we'll explore how Peter's meaningful encounters with Jesus reshaped him from an impulsive follower into a faithful leader.
Learn more: faithbible.church/peter
This summer, join us for the compelling story of Peter, one of Jesus' most relatable disciples. Together, we'll explore how Peter's meaningful encounters with Jesus reshaped him from an impulsive follower into a faithful leader.
Learn more: faithbible.church/peter
This summer, join us for the compelling story of Peter, one of Jesus' most relatable disciples. Together, we'll explore how Peter's meaningful encounters with Jesus reshaped him from an impulsive follower into a faithful leader.
Learn more: faithbible.church/peter
This summer, join us for the compelling story of Peter, one of Jesus' most relatable disciples. Together, we'll explore how Peter's meaningful encounters with Jesus reshaped him from an impulsive follower into a faithful leader.
Learn more: faithbible.church/peter
Join us as we dive into the apostle John’s first letter to the Christians of the Roman world. John wants to expose false teachers while deepening the believer's fellowship and intimacy with Jesus. He reminds the readers of two primary characteristics of God. God is Light, and God is Love. The Apostle John wants us to walk in the light and love of God through fellowship with His son, Jesus Christ.
Learn more: https://faithbible.church/1john
Are the things you’ve devoted yourself to making a difference? We talk about carrying that weight as a church but have we devoted ourselves to the things that will help us do that? What are those things? If we’re going to help carry that weight that we have to know what to devote ourselves to, and that’s where learning from the early church can help us.
The crowd that welcomed Jesus with palms of celebration and worship must have truly adored Him in the moment.
How could they later turn on Him so quickly, but more specifically, how can we?
This morning your first joyful days as a new believer might be a distant memory – the hardened echo of a long time ago.
How do we lose that innocence of worship?
Why do we struggle to learn from the past? And how do we change our trajectory? As we close out the book of Hosea today, we’re going to take a look at three examples from ISRAEL’S PAST in chapters 12-13… 1) their forefather, Jacob; 2) the wilderness wanderings; and 3) their desire for a king. And we’ll see some valuable takeaways in each of these examples that still apply to us today…if we’re willing to learn from the past! And then we’ll take a look at a beautiful promise for the future in chapter 14 that is meant to motivate us toward change.
Why did God continue to show grace to Jonah? He was a disobedient and selfish prophet. Why did God continue to show grace to Israel even though they continue to turn their back on God? Why does God continue to show grace to you and I even though we ignore him, we are selfish at times, we are prone to wander? Why does God continue to show us grace?
The deeper we get into sin the harder it is to see a way back to God, so we pull away. And sometimes as we face the consequences for those things we’ve done wrong we take it as further confirmation that God is angry with us. He’s punishing us for what we’ve done wrong.
We look at the depth of our sin and start to wonder if there’s any way back to God. If we do see a way back that way might look so hard and painful that we’d rather stay where we’re at.
But what if we were to find at the end of that road something better…..a new relationship that’s deeper and better than what we had before, Because discipline brings us back.
Do you ever find yourself feeling stuck? Wondering why you are where you are? We have these seasons in life where we just can’t tell what the plan is. Your job or your health or your family life just isn’t what you thought it would be, and you don’t see an end in sight. Worry or fear or frustration have become the norm and you’re not sure how to break out of those feelings. But are we missing something in the storm that we can’t see beyond are own struggle? Are we limiting what God can do or show us in those seasons because we just don’t want to be where he has us in that moment? If God’s grace is limitless, how do we experience it when we feel so limited?
God is always chasing people with his grace! But that’s really difficult for us to understand, because there are some things so bad or so ugly, that we just can’t imagine grace covering them. Over the next 11 weeks, we want to begin the process of removing these limits we put on God’s grace! As we look at the books of Jonah and Hosea, we’ll see the Limitless Grace of God on full display in two of the weirdest stories in all of the Bible - one involving a grown man getting swallowed by a fish, the other about a prophet who marries a prostitute, but God chose these two wild and beautiful stories to get our attention so that we would begin to see Him differently and live differently in light of His limitless grace!
What is it you’re hoping for right now? When we talk about hope we’re usually thinking of things we want now or something we think might happen. When you’re young and it’s Christmas your hope is in getting that thing you really want on Christmas. As get older we start to hope for different things in our lives. We hope certain things happen or we hope certain people come through for us. Unfortunately most of things we put our hope in eventually let us down. Sometimes we just don’t get the thing we hope for OR maybe we do get the thing we hoped for only to find out it’s just not as good as we thought it’d be. As Christmas approaches and you see this word “Hope” on everything….in well lit signs, and Christmas cards, and ornaments we have to ask:
How can we have real hope without expecting disappointment?
Sometimes in life, we take our stuff for granted: finances, friends, marriage, kids. The same struggle applies to following Jesus. It’s easy to lapse in to spiritual lethargy when it looks like Jesus is a long way off, because we take it for granted that we can get it back. But what if we can’t? What if time runs out? As we finish the book of 2 Peter in this sermon, Peter said there’s a day coming when you and I won’t get it back.
Most of us are looking for permanence. By that I mean we have a picture in our minds of what it will look like when we’ve arrived, when we’ve finally achieved what we want, so that life really can’t get any better. Intuitively we long for what’s best, for stability, for consistency, for reliability, for genuine happiness, for life to be the very best it can be. And, if we were honest, we’d like it sooner than later. But here’s the problem. Is it really possible to attain permanence with temporary things? Maybe that’s why phrases like “this is the last” never turn out to be true, because we keep filling in the blank with temporary things. Peter said those things were corrupt. They are doomed to decay, destruction and death. By their very nature they can never be “the last” because they don’t last. Are you trying to build a permanent life with temporary stuff?
Why is it that we are so easily lured by the world’s overpromising? Usually, it’s because life is hard, and we are constantly looking for an escape from the pain and suffering anywhere we can find it. Like drug addicts looking for the next hit, we have become gluttons for escape! But the problem is that the very things offering us freedom usually end up enslaving us. Like a hamster on a wheel - instead of escaping our problems, we remain stuck in the same place, frustrated and exhausted that nothing ever changes. How do we get stuck in these cycles? What’s at stake when we do? And how do we safeguard against getting duped?
Here, on this Sunday before Thanksgiving, are you truly thankful? Your answer to that question probably hinges on this: are you content? In your troubled heart, don’t you yearn for the God of peace to be with you? It all begins with gratitude. Wouldn’t it be great if we really could have a genuine season of Thanksgiving?
What do you do when you something wrong starts happening on your watch? Maybe you see someone being bullied and picked on at school or being made fun of at the office—wrong is happening on your watch. Someone at the office is taking credit for someone else’s work—wrong is happening on your watch. When you hear people gossiping about someone else or a situation–wrong is happening on your watch. What does it do inside you when you see these bullies, people stealing, or someone in authority or a leadership position taking advantage of other people. How do you recognize when these people are doing wrong your watch? We need to keep our eyes wide open.
If you’re trying to follow Jesus and live the way he lived you might start to wonder what’s the point of all this? Why make every effort to follow Jesus when it’s hard to see the reward? As the culture and even some in the church grow more and more opposed to living that way why suffer and endure for Jesus when there seems to be a way that’s easier and more pleasant? Is life without consequences really how life works?
It’s hard to stay focused on what matters most. And this has implications for following Jesus. Getting distracted contributes to the struggle to follow Jesus. Forgetting makes it easy to be captivated by things that don’t last. So how do we remember to use our time, energy, and resources to make the most of our lives when it’s so easy to forget? How do we keep our lives rooted in and attached to what matters? How do we keep our Eyes Wide Open to Jesus, not just as a curious observer hanging out on the edges, but as a committed follower, totally loyal to him?
What has captivated your attention? To what or to whom are your Eyes Wide Open? Peter knew this question matters because he knew that there is a real struggle, a real tension as Jesus Followers. On the one hand we desire to follow Jesus as the organizing principle of our lives. We don’t just want to be curious followers that hang out on the edges. We want Jesus to captivate us with our Eyes Wide Open to him so that he becomes preeminent in our everyday decisions. But on the other hand we struggle to escape the corruption that is in this world. There are so many pressures, demands, expectations and desires that clamor for our time, energy and resources. So how do we manage this struggle? Practically speaking, what can we do to keep our Eyes Wide Open to Jesus so that he becomes preeminent in our lives?
At the transfiguration Jesus took Peter, James and John on a rocket ride into eternity that opened Peter’s eyes wide to who Jesus is, and he said it confirmed that the prophetic scriptures are true. Peter never got over it. It’s why he wrote 2 Peter. We can sell sugar water or we can take a rocket ride with Jesus into eternity with our Eyes Wide Open. Peter hoped you and I would do the latter.
We all have limited time, energy, and resources and in those limitations we have to figure out how to get everything to sync in together. The challenge we face is balancing everything. We have baseball games to go to, band events, date nights, church, small group, time with God, things with kids. How are we supposed to balance all of that with a 40-50 hour a week job? Not to mention exercise and sleep. These are the times when anxiety comes in, depression, or addictions. So typically what happens is we move another category of life that needs the most attention at the moment into the center which we have called that the Organizing Principle. Today we’re going to look at what happens when we focus everything around our work, our careers, our jobs. When your work becomes the Organizing Principle of our lives, eventually you will be knocked out of rhythm.
Maybe today you are in the middle of a storm and know your life is out of rhythm. Maybe you are disappointed in your marriage because it’s flawed and imperfect and can’t possibly be the Operating Principle of your life. A life of rhythm – fulfilling lives and solid marriages are not built on wisdom, theology, or any other human effort. They are built on the living Jesus, alive in our hearts, living His life through us.
Last week we left you hanging a little bit. Witte identified the problem for us but we didn’t offer much in the way of a solution. When following Jesus is your organizing principle, what you’re looking for in your own life is submission to God and selflessness toward others. When those two things are the driving force for how you live it changes everything. It changes your motivations for the things you do. They serve as a guide for every decision you make. Your habits and goals and desires are now oriented around living like Jesus.
In this series called Rhythms, we are going to ask the question, how does being a Jesus Follower help us bring order to the chaos of our lives? In week one we are going to identify the problem that makes life chaotic. In week two we are going to propose the solution. Then in weeks 3-5 we are going to apply the solution to the areas of finances, family, work. Our goal is to try to help you manage life from the perspective of a Jesus Follower, because as we said a few weeks ago, we believe following Jesus will make your life better because it’ll make you better at life.
We live in a day and age when it can be hard to find dependable people. Not that they aren’t around. All of you know someone you can count on. If you need help they’ll be there. You know who you can call. But if you’ve ever dealt with someone who isn’t dependable, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth. People who can’t be depended upon constantly cause hardship and heartache for others. So let’s spend a few minutes today thinking about what dependable people look like and ask ourselves if we ourselves are dependable. Will you show up? Do you keep your word? Can others count on you? Are you the person family, friends, and colleagues are going to call when they need help?
We are in week three of our NEXT series, and we’ve been talking about our unique mission and purpose at Faith Bible Church - We build generations of Jesus Followers who take grace to our world. Though it may sound simple, we believe this is why we exist as a church. This week, we’re going to wrap up our series talking about taking grace to our world, which is really the ultimate goal of building generations of Jesus followers. For followers of Jesus, taking grace is simply faith expressed in love! And while most of us think that’s a great idea, we struggle to do it! The question is…why do we struggle to take grace to others?
Last week we focused our attention on the fact that FBC is heavily invested in building the next generation. A significant number of staff and budget are focused on your children, grandchildren and students, because what we do today matters tomorrow. We want to build them into Jesus Followers. And you’ll notice that Jesus Followers is capitalized and in bold in our mission statement, and that’s on purpose, because it’s at the core of what FBC is all about. Therefore, it behooves us to ask a couple of important questions. What does it mean to be a Jesus Follower? And, can you and I even do it?
Our mission statement of Faith Bible Church is: We build generations of Jesus Followers who take grace to our world. This at the core is why we are here in the Woodlands, TX. And In the next 3 weeks we will break down the 3 major points of this statement starting with today and understanding what it takes to build generations. If we want to build generations we better concentrate on how we hand off what we want passed on. What we do today matters for tomorrow.
Trials that linger are like one continuous long ride home from the hospital, suspended in mid-air, with no hope of rest or relief. It’s so easy to end up angry, bitter, depressed, selfish, even mean, and to be so consumed with the trial that we lose all sense of normalcy. What are we suppose to do with trials that linger? How do you move on with your life when your life will never move on from that trial?
What do you do when life goes wrong?! What do you do when frustration wells up, anger sets in, anxiety overwhelms, and complaining comes out? How are you suppose to respond when your good life goes bad? In our text for today James answered this question. He answered it very simply and succinctly, "Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord."
Money is one of the ways we measure our significance. We often compare ourselves to others based on our money. What if our good feelings about money are false? Because let’s admit it, if you have money, you probably feel pretty good about it. But what if our attitude toward it is all wrong? What if you and I aren’t thinking accurately about our money and wealth? The key to living out the book of James is your attitude. Attitude matters! Attitude is a by-product of perspective, understanding that life now is not only about now, but is about preparing us to live on the new earth in eternity. Perspective directly effects what we do with our money, because if we think life is primarily about now, we will hoard treasure on the earth. Big mistake! Because wealth is a means to an end, but if we make it an end in itself it becomes a dead end.
We think of independence as the Great American Dream, where our goal is independence and self-reliance. This isn’t new. It’s just age-old low-grade arrogance wrapped up in practical atheism. A Godly life seeks God’s glory as the aim of every decision. Work and career are a function of our place in the body of Christ, where we are stewards of everything God blesses us. The longer we live, the more excellent the opportunity to live a life of service expressed in love toward Him and other people.
What is it that makes us so quick to be critical of others? Why do we find it so easy to question our authorities, speak ill of people behind their backs, and criticize anyone we disagree with? We don’t know what God has planned for the people sitting around us today. We don’t know what will become of the person at the cash register, the waitress serving our table, or any of the people we interact with on a daily basis. Do yourself a huge favor today and just BE QUIET. Stop judging your brothers and sisters. Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. Ease up on people, show mercy, so that God will be merciful to you when He judges you.
Pride gives us a false picture of ourselves, but in humility we see ourselves as we truly are, creatures totally dependent on God’s grace.
What makes us angry? Where does it all come from? Why do we get so angry about not getting that promotion? Why does it frustrate us to no end when our kids won’t listen? Why did COVID make us so angry? Why did we get so angry when our house flooded? Why can’t we get over someone cheating on us? Where does it all come from? And why can can’t we seem to get a grip on our anger? Is there something deeper going on inside that we’re unaware of? James tells us that if we get our attitude right, God can use our trials to grow and mature us, and with the right attitude, our trials would result in endurance, wisdom, and genuine happiness!
We all leave a wake behind us for good or for bad. The question is…what kind of wake are we leaving? Unfortunately, our wakes are often more destructive than we might like. When you look back at your wake do you like what you see? Are you proud of it, or do you wish you could change it?
Bad experiences often cause us to flinch. Flinching of course is when we pull back, shy away, waiver, hesitate, falter in the face of what we anticipate might happen. It’s common to flinch when we start a difficult but necessary conversation, when we agree to take on responsibility that we know will be challenging. It’s not unusual to flinch any time we anticipate negative repercussions that might result from whatever it is we’re about to do. And flinching has real application in the face of trials. Flinching effects our attitude toward trials, and at this point in the book of James we know that’s a huge problem. Flinching makes us less likely to endure. It makes us more likely to avoid challenges and walk away. Flinching makes it hard to take action, even on the things we know to be true. At the core flinching is a faith problem. We’re not sure we trust what’s about to happen. We’re not sure who we can trust, if it’s worth the risk to trust, when it’s safe to trust, why we should trust, what can we trust?
We see people through lenses that alter our perception for better or worse. These lenses come from our culture, biases, beliefs, and prejudices. They come with labels too, and we use them to categorize people as "Liberal or Conservative," "Good or Bad," or even "Christian or Worldly." Each of these lenses and labels causes us to summarize people, assign them value and treat them accordingly. None of our lenses and labels accurately describe a person's worth with a clear view of their heart: That's a truth only God knows. Our judgment of others extends to every aspect of our life. We do it in traffic with other drivers, but we also do it at work with our colleagues, at home with our families, and yes, even at church with each other. It’s all very human – but is there a better way? Is human nature our best guide for relating to other people? How should we respond when there’s a truck bearing down on us?
When it comes to how we live our lives there’s a lot to listen to these days. You’re hearing all the things you should be doing but you haven’t quite figured out what to do with the information. You probably hear something almost every day on how you should live your life.In all of this instruction what we really want is to find the thing that’s going to make us happy. Not fleeting happiness that goes away as fast as it came, but genuine happiness that’s lasting. The last thing you want is a long list of rules to follow or dozens of voices telling you what you should be doing. So who, or what, should we be listening to to find that kind of happiness?
It sure would be nice if God could just write that recipe out to follow when trials come. God consistently does that for us and He wants to guide us through these difficult times. James knew his readers would need a recipe to follow during their trials and it’s a recipe that we can all follow as well.
Our happiness is only as reliable as the power grid of life, which you and I do not control. What's a reliable source of genuine happiness? And how might that kind of happiness be connected to the subject of trials? Because it seems like trials and happiness don’t belong in the same sentence together. James tells us otherwise.
Do you find it easy to walk away? When the relationship gets hard? When the job is too demanding, or the boss is too toxic? When the other people on the committee are unreasonable and don’t listen? When the pain is too constant. When you’re exhausted? It’s easy to walk away, but every time you do, another dream is lost. The inability to endure is a real problem, because as James made clear, without endurance we’ll never reach our full potential as a person. Or to use his words, we’ll never become perfect, and complete, lacking in nothing.
What are we suppose to do with trials when we aren’t certain we can get through them? What if any purpose do they have? How do we keep from becoming bitter, angry, depressed, or just plain mean and selfish? In what many scholars consider to be the very first book of the New Testament, James answered these kind of real life questions for his former Jerusalem congregation that had found it necessary to disperse due to a great persecution that began in Acts 8. To those facing significant trials in life, James wrote to let them know they could get through it, and be better for it.
Because Jesus lives, our lives are not dust in the wind, here on second and gone the next. Through Jesus we will inherit the kingdom of God. Orienting our lives to that kingdom is the key to living our best and most productive lives now and in eternity.
Many times this is what is happening when our lives don’t seem to be playing out the way we want them to. We’re only seeing the picture from one angle and it looks like a jumbled mess. What do you do when your hopes and dreams are shattered? You pursue life from God’s perspective. The cross didn’t shatter the hopes and dreams of Jesus, it fulfilled them. He pursued the cross because of his perspective.
Sunday's message is Part 2 of our In Fact series leading up to Easter. Last week we focused on the historical fact of Jesus’ resurrection, and now we focus on the prophetic fact of our resurrection. If death has no respect for people, it is certainly no respecter of childhood. One of the earliest aspects of every child’s loss of innocence is their first encounter with death. It is revolting to us, and we know death is our enemy in the depth of our hearts. The Corinthians knew Jesus was their Savior, but they struggled, as we do, to understand what that meant beyond this life. Paul pointed them to God and taught them how Jesus’ historical resurrection ensures our future resurrection.
Over the next three weeks, we’re going to take a closer look at the Resurrection of Jesus Christ and why it matters…not just why it matters historically, but why it matters in our own lives. As we’re going to discover, the resurrection changed the course of human history, and it changes the course of our lives - the way we look at life and even death, and the way that we live in light of it!
How are we suppose to get our lives right when life is coming at us so fast? How do we take Jesus’ ancient advice and apply it in the modern age right here where we live? You can make the most of your life if you’ll let the Scriptures improve your insight. Make life’s most important decisions long before you face them, and maintain perspective by keeping eternity in mind.
Today we come full circle in our series on How to Make the Most of Your Life. We began this series in Matthew 16.24 with Jesus calling the 12 to follow him to Jerusalem to suffer and even die. Naturally the 12 would have asked why they would want to do that? And Jesus answered by telling them that their willingness to suffer with him was the key to making the most of their lives. As we’ve said through out the series we gain our lives by giving them away!
Have you ever had a moment in your life where you almost talked yourself out of something that could have made the most of your life? Zaccheus had every reason to not take the risk and to talk himself out of making the most of his life. But when he met Jesus, that didn’t matter anymore, he knew his life was about Jesus from here on out. What risk is Jesus asking you to take so you can make the most of your life? Stop talking yourself out of what Jesus is talking you into in order to make the most of your life
Throughout this series, we have been adjusting our list to reflect Jesus’ call to give our lives away…but too often, what we want overwhelms our list. Imagine what it would look like if everyone in this room moved in the motion of the Holy Spirit, yielded to Him! Imagine what it would like if every single one of us lived what’s on our list. What a difference that would make inside our church family, and outside these walls in our community! The Holy Spirit is our guide to help us do just that. We are not alone. He is there to help you and me make the most of our lives.
We are now at the point in the series where we’re asking ourselves what adjustments we need to make to our list to make the most of our lives. In week one we said we can’t limit our list to what we can see. Jesus said there is a future reality that is so certain that if the life we’re living now doesn’t matter then, it doesn’t matter now. In week two we said we need to make sure we don’t make excuses that cause us to miss the moments that can make the most of our lives. Because there are some moments that come our way that when they’re gone they’re gone, they never come our way again. Today we want to look at a third adjustment: to become a doer of the word by acting on it so it can act on you.
Last week we started our series by acknowledging that we all have a list for how to make the most of our lives. And of course we asked the question, “How do we know if our list is correct?” Because our lists are normally about what we can get, whereas Jesus said we gain our lives by giving them away. So we asked ourselves if we trusted him enough to adjust our list to reflect his. Starting today, we want to begin to look at the kind of adjustments Jesus asks us to make in order to make the most of our lives. It’s common to miss moments that can change our lives. We all do it, even if on a less grand scale. And here’s the thing, our excuses always seem legitimate, even persuasive, in the moment. Until we realize, often when it’s too late, that there are some moments that come our way, that when they’re gone they’re gone; they never come our way again.
We all have a list about what it means to make the most of our lives. But our list may be limited. Unless someone who knows more and has seen more helps us out, there’s a chance our list may not reflect reality. What’s on your list about how to make the most of your life? Are you sure it’s correct? Is it possible that your list isn’t as reflective of reality as you think?
Religion made simple is one look of faith to Jesus. He is our salvation and he is our model for sacrificial love. Everything works better when people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life love like Jesus in this life.
When we exploit our advantages for our own gain, it’s insider trading. Why do we adopt this as a way of life? the gospel of grace has the power to deal a death blow to operating like inside traders. It has the power to turn us into people who not only believe in Jesus for eternal life, but love like Jesus in this life.
If you’ve been around religion much you know it can get complicated. In fact complicated Christianity is what causes many people to walk away from Christ. If the core of the Christian Faith is as simple as faith expressed in love, then how do we make it so complicated that it doesn’t work when we most need it? Everything works better when the people who have believed in Jesus for eternal life love like Jesus in this life.
When facing uncertainty do you look about, for that one fix to stabilize your situation, or do you look above, to God? Look above by looking out for the person next to you.
What gift will you give God? What He really wants is our heart. It’s the only thing we own.
Are you in need of the mercies of God during this Christmas season? The prophecy of Jesus through Zacharias and his son John the Baptist can bring us joy and gladness just as it did for those in Jesus's day if we believe in God with our heart. Jesus's birth on Christmas isn't the end of the story–He's coming again.
Do you have a sense of confidence or boldness as you approach God in prayer? The clearer your picture of Jesus, the greater the confidence you will have. His sacrifice has opened the way completely for our access to God. What, then, are your needs for grace today? Bring those boldly to him now.
Only through Jesus and His grace can we find perfect peace, enough for all the struggles in our lives.
How can I know God’s will? This may be one of the most common questions Christians ask. How does God guide His people in decision-making? Does He have a specific will for me? And if He does, how can I know it?God’s Word is a guiding light! Are your expectations biblical? Do you see God’s Word as a crystal ball…or a flashlight? God’s Word is a guiding light to those who are…obedient…teachable…courageous…and knowledgeable.
When life doesn’t go the way we want, what do we do? How do we as Christians handle adversity?
A look at the end times and the Antichrist through the lens of 2 Thessalonians 2, Daniel, and Revelation. If Jesus, the Living Word of God, will conquer by His Word, a sword, so we, the Body of Christ, should hold fast by the Word of God.
The space between the presence of suffering and the reality of God’s Intervention begs to be filled with expanding and maturing faith.
Suffering needs either a way out or a way through and God typically chooses the latter.
We will expand our unique church DNA through strategic, missional multiplication. Our infinite, ever-present Father is constantly expanding His reach. He does so through His children.
Jesus, as God, needed no one. He is, and was in His earthly ministry, totally sufficient. Yet His plan to spread the good news of His sacrificial work on the cross, which was birthed before the foundation of the world, included sinful, messy, bickering, flawed men and women. He entrusted the church to people. To us. After we get over the shock of that fact, we realize it is also instructive. We are disciples that should constantly make disciples. We are followers of Jesus that should equip other followers. We are committed to developing leaders because that’s exactly what the Son of God did and does. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter and Counselor, is busy doing just that in every daughter and son of God by faith.
Chad Melton walks through the story of the woman at the well in John 4. Nothing can heal our wounds or satisfy our soul like Jesus, and he is calling us to go share with others what he has done for us.
Within the Father’s Family there are critical practices that provide maximum joy. 1 Thessalonians 5:14-18.
The Father has designed His Church to love in all directions. 1. Say “Thank You” often, to everyone… 2. Respect the challenges of Church Leadership 3. Share the burden of the Leader 4. Fully engage the mission as a committed Follower 5. Grumble to God a long time before anyone else
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13
In our study of Thessalonians, Scot tackles tough questions like: What are the timing and framework of prophetic events? What is the nature and timing of the Millennial Kingdom? What is the relationship of the Rapture to the Tribulation? Believer, live presently in the sure light of future history. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11
Believer, you are not the center of your future. The future waits only on Jesus. Only this focus can offer comfort.
Love for one another and reception of love can be good indicators of spiritual maturity. There is a Jesus way to live out love and live in love. The alternatives are really messy.
Sanctification is the lifelong process of embodied holiness. Popular change agents include fear, shame, and control. Biblical change agents are a change of heart (values), an understanding of consequences, and an examination of relationship. Lasting behavioral change always begins as a change of values. We must give attention to the health of the root because our enemy has a clear scheme to poison it.