You can read every apologetics book that has ever been written. You can ponder the mysteries of the universe and the human body's complexities. And though all creation testifies to God's glory, their testimony alone will not lead you to saving faith.

Like Thomas, it is not about more proof but presence. In the presence of Jesus, our fear is confronted, our faith is affirmed, and our belief is celebrated.

If you look for how Jesus preached at funerals, you will search in vain because when Jesus went to funerals, He did not just comfort the grieving; He raised the dead. Even before His resurrection, death could not exist where He was.

The hope of the gospel is not that we would cope with death. The hope of the gospel is that Jesus has defeated death. In sin, no one can escape death and its curse. But Jesus conquered death. And through salvation, we can know His resurrection.

Jesus proclaimed, “It is finished,” as His final word from the cross. With His death, scripture was fulfilled, and the work of redemption was complete. We can do nothing to earn our salvation. Jesus finished the work of atonement on the cross. You cannot add more to what Jesus has done. You must either receive the gift or reject it.

In an attempt to demonstrate His weakness and powerlessness, Jesus is ridiculed as a false king. But even in His suffering and mistreatment, His kingdom is unshaken. His authority as King of all kings is not threatened.

Death on the cross was intended to be humiliating and shameful. But on the cross, Jesus confronts the guilt and shame of our sin and overcomes it with His own blood.

It has been a difficult week. Due to a family tragedy, I did not preach this pastor Sunday, and we have been out of town this week for the funeral.

For the podcast this week, I have chosen a sermon I preached in 2020 from the book of James. In this passage, James takes on the cause of conflict in the church and the resulting broken relationship with God and gives a clear solution – draw near to God through repentance. I hope it will be a blessing to you.

This week has had its challenges. Due to a major water leak in our sanctuary, no recording was made of last Sunday’s sermon. And as the week unfolded my time was consumed with the logistics of dealing with the cleanup and moving our services to another building. Unfortunately, I do not have a sermon podcast for this week and was not able to finish writing my blog post. Today’s episode is a quick update on the events of this past week and what I hope will be in the days to come.

Church leadership can be a complicated subject. Tradition and customs often have more weight on how we structure church leadership than the biblical witness. And there is always the human concern of who has more power than who.

The word elder is almost exclusively used in the New Testament in the plural form. The only references to a singular elder are greetings and instructions on how the church should respond to accusations against an elder. The point is simple: the church is to have a plurality of elders.

The office of elder is sometimes referred to as overseer or pastor. Every reference to elders recognizes the elders as the ones who have authority over and responsibility for the church.

I am confident that the more faithful we obey God’s word, the more the church will be effective and blessed. Thus, in this sermon, I hope to be as biblically faithful as possible, knowing that we do not perfectly reflect this teaching in our church and may find this uncomfortable. I do so that we might constantly examine our faithfulness to God’s word and continually move toward more faithful obedience.

When someone goes to school to learn a trade, the ultimate goal is to become proficient in the skill well enough to employ it to earn a living. When students choose their degree program in college, the intended purpose is to prepare for a career in a specific field.

Training for a job or studying for a future career are worthy endeavors and have a sense of anticipation for what is to come after the training is complete. However, if your goal were only to train but never to employ your skill, it would become a purposeless endeavor.

A ministry is something that serves as an agency, instrument, or means. The church's ministry is to equip and mature the saints for faithful service to the Lord. Ephesians 4:11-16 points to the role that church leaders have in equipping the saints and the command on all the members of the church to mature and grow.

The book of 2 Timothy was written by Paul to Timothy as a letter of instruction as to how he was to pastor and lead the church. This passage (4:1-5), is often used when giving a charge to a newly ordained pastor – and rightly so.

Yet we should not see this passage as only speaking to or applying to pastors. The books of our New Testament were mostly letters written to encourage individuals and specific churches in their living out of the gospel. Being inspired by the Holy Spirit, the church recognized that these letters were instructive for the whole church and thus passed them around to others for their edification. Thus with a passage like this one, we can appreciate how it speaks to a particular group, but we must not lose sight that all of scripture is instructive and beneficial to the whole church.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 commands us to preach the word, minister the word both for God's glory and man's blessing.

This past weekend my family and I were in Athens, GA, because our son, Micah, performed with the Georgia All State Chorus on Saturday. The concert was wonderful, and we enjoyed worshiping with Watkinsville First Baptist on Sunday. I am very thankful for Greg Benfield, who is the Associational Missions Strategist for the Piedmont-Okefenokee Baptist Association. Greg filled the pulpit for me here at Central in Waycross so that I could be away.

Since I did not preach this past Sunday, the sermon this week is one out of the archives. In 2019 I preached a sermon series on families and began with a sermon from Colossians 3:18-19 titled Marriages that testify to Christ. I preached this on March 3, 2019. I hope that it will bless you today.

Presently there is great confusion about the church’s ministry of worship. Today, many think of the worship ministry of the church as a product of consumption. Thus the main determining factor of attendance for many is founded on personal preferences of music style, preaching style, and formality or informality of the church’s liturgy. Attendance is not understood as an integral part of one’s spiritual life but rather an option equal to all other calendared events.

In this passage, Paul is writing to the church as to how they are to live and interact with other believers in the church. Verses 19 and 20, reference the public worship of the church and the whole passage is instructive for our understanding of worship.

Church discipline is a subject that makes many uncomfortable. This may be because the church has not been faithful or consistent, some have used the cover of church discipline to abuse, or so little is understood about it, that there is much misunderstanding. Regardless of how uncomfortable it may cause us to be, we must reckon with the fact that this is the teaching of Jesus. May our heart's desire be to faithfully obey the word of God - even the parts that make us uncomfortable.

This passage follows a very significant moment in the life of Peter. Jesus had asked his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?” Peter replied with the powerful confession: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” In verses 18-19 Jesus responds to Peter’s confession. Jesus declares that on this confession of Peter, Jesus will build His church. In this passage, we see that the church is founded on Jesus, sustained by Jesus, and is the testimony of the gospel.

The issue of the sanctity of life is throughout scripture. Job is the oldest book in the Bible. In this passage, Job makes a defense of himself in response to his friends who have accused him of sin. As a part of his defense, he testifies to the most basic of truths – the sanctity of life.

As we have lived through the COVID-19 pandemic and all difficulties that it has brought to the church, we have had to think critically about what it means to be a church gathered for worship. Can the gathering of the church be substituted with a virtual alternative? Is it required for the church to be together? What is the difference between hearing preaching live from the pulpit and watching or listening online? Hebrews 10:24-25 calls us not to forsake the gathering of the saints. It compels us to continue in our faithfulness and gives us a deeper understanding of why we gather and the holy significance of our gathering together as a church.

In this passage, Paul encourages the church to rid itself of sinful rebellious members. I think this passage is instructive to us as individuals as well. Each of us must constantly work to rid our lives of the corruption of sin. As we begin 2022 let us consider how we can make a fresh start towards righteousness.

The birth of Jesus is an amazing event. His birth is why we celebrate Christmas. As Matthew retells the birth story, he repeatedly reminds us that these events were the fulfillment of the prophecies that foretold of the coming messiah. Even the family’s escape to Egypt and return to Nazareth (2:13-23) were part of God’s perfect plan. But amazing as the birth and all the events around it are – the birth is not the end of the story.

The birth of Jesus is important but why He was born is even more important. Matthew 3 begins to tell the story of who Jesus is and why Jesus was born. Jesus is the Lord of all creation. The Lord of all creation came to die that we might be saved

When the angel revealed to Joseph that Mary was pregnant with the Messiah, he was declaring that the long wait was over. The long-anticipated Messiah was coming. The Christ has arrived.

The name that the prophet Isaiah gives the messiah is Immanuel. As Matthew recounts the encounter Joseph had with the angel, he reminds us that this name means “God with us.” God stepped out of the glory of heaven to dwell among and with us.

The prophets sang, “Oh come, oh come Immanuel.” The angel declared to Joseph Immanuel had come. Through Jesus, we know the amazing love of God's presence, and sacrifice. And through the love of Jesus, we are transformed.

Habakkuk knew that the judgment of God was coming. He knew there was no way to avoid it. He would likely die before God restored the people to the land. These were hard days. They were not going to get better in his lifetime. And yet Habakkuk ends this book with some of the most hopeful and joy-filled words in all of scripture.

Habakkuk had joy even in the brokenness of his present situation because he was looking toward the salvation of God that would come with the birth of Jesus.

Sometimes all you have is a few minutes. With this in mind I am excited to announce that I am working on a new podcast channel called “Sermon Shorts”. I will be posting 5 min or less clips from recent sermons. I hope you will subscribe and listen. The channel is already available on Apple podcast and will be coming to Google podcast, and other podcast sites very soon.

The following is an example of what each sermon short will be like. It is from a sermon I preached from 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 titled “Our Identity is in Christ alone.” I hope you enjoy.