Good morning, First Baptist Church!  We arrive this morning at the end of the book of James. It has been an intense three months.  James is a little over 1700 words in English, depending on your translation.  I say it’s intense because in these 108 verses we have found about 54 commands.  Every other verse, James is telling us to do something.  This book, in my opinion, is one of the most intensely practical books in all of the Bible.  James pulls no punches.  There are some hard texts to sit under.  There have been some hard texts to preach, because to preach a sermon you first have to hear a sermon and that hasn’t been easy.  But I love where James leave us.  This is the most encouraging passage in this letter and I can’t think of a better way to finish this study. Let’s read together from James 5:

Read James 5:13-20

Pray

A turkey hunter in southwest Missouri did what he had done a million times.  He awoke early on a cold morning, gathered his gear

Read More

Good morning, First Baptist Church! While you turn to James 5, I get to talk about my favorite holiday of the year.  Some of ya’ll have sinfully moved on to Christmas already and my heart hurts for you.  This week truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

I knew we celebrate our independence in July, but Thanksgiving really is the most American of holidays.  It’s the food olympics.  Many of us will gather with people we only see once a year to justify eating our body weight in turkey, mashed potatoes, pie, and all manner of other assorted goodness.  But Thanksgiving truly is the gift that keeps on giving.  Because it’s not just a meal.  For many of us, the big meal is followed by a big nap.  How could it get any better?  It does! Then comes the leftovers!

I love Thanksgiving.  I know some of you are picky eaters. Here’s a Thanksgiving life hack for you.  A good Thanksgiving meal is always going to have gravy.  If there’s a side you don’t like, but feel like you have to eat it just pour gravy over it.  Gravy covers a whole lot of sins when it comes to cooking.

Have any of you already started cooking for Thursday?  Do any of you cook for multiple days?  The best meals require some time, don’t they?  It’s much more likely that your favorite meal comes from a crockpot than the microwave.

Read More

Good morning, First Baptist Church!

If you’re going to children’s church you’re dismissed at this time.  We’ll be in James 5 this morning.  While you turn there I want to share a story from an Ann Landers column.  For the Google generation, Ask Ann Landers was a syndicated advice column that ran in newspapers for decades.  Instead of asking your question to Google, you’d write a letter—with a real pen and paper—and mail it off to Ann to get advice.

One of her columns was the story about a girl who had a rocky relationship with her uncle.  He wasn’t a kind man.  To illustrate his greed, this young lady wrote about how he squirreled away a portion of every paycheck he ever earned.  He didn’t trust the banks, so he hid the money under his mattress, in closets, in various hidey-holes all over the house.

Read More

Good morning, First Baptist Church!  If you’re going to children’s church you’re dismissed at this time.  We’ll be in James 4 this morning.

Missouri’s most famous son is arguably our 33rd president, Harry S. Truman.  He was in office for all manner of major historical events: the dropping of the atomic bomb, the end of World War II, and the creation of the United Nations among other things.

Aside from the big historical facts about his life, I have enjoyed learning about some of his eccentric quirks.  If you grew up in Missouri, you might have learned some of these things in school.  We didn’t spend much time on Harry S.  Truman in Tennessee.  If we did, I might have learned the S is just an S or that he owned and operated a men’s clothing store before going into politics.

Read More

Good morning, First Baptist Church!

We’re going to be in James 4 today.

Our family had the opportunity to catch the high school’s fall choir and orchestra concert this week.  Many of you were participating in that as either singers or instrumentalists and you did an excellent job.

Remington, our 2-year old, wasn’t exactly thrilled at the start of the concert.  He was fidgeting and kicking the lady in front of us and doing his best to be a tiny terrorist.  But when the music started, he settled down magically.  I was holding him and he was really still.  As the music wore on, I noticed he hadn’t moved in a bit so I look down and sure enough, he’s asleep.  So I got to enjoy the rest of the show in peace.  And anytime one of the other kids would notice him they’d say something and I’d threaten them.  Don’t disturb the peace.

Read More

Good morning, church! We’re going to read James 2:14-26 this morning.  As you’re turning there, I feel it’s appropriate to point out there are two types of people in the world.

There are those who acknowledge The Princess Bride as the greatest film of all time and then there are those who are wrong.

The Princess Bride is a story of true love.  It features kings and princesses, pirates and giants, heroes and villains, joy and revenge, Sicilians and Spaniards.  It has everything.

There comes a point in the movie where our hero named Westley lies dead in the pit of despair.  His companions are devastated, but they still hold out hope.  They hope to buy a miracle.

And in one of my favorite scenes in the whole move they visit Miracle Max—played by Billy Crystal.  Miracle Max is a retired miracle worker, so he’s reluctant to get involved.  But when he learns that Westley is fighting for true love and that his friends can offer the princely sum of $65 he is willing to help and informs the friends that just so happens that Westley is only mostly dead.

Read More

View on Youtube

Good morning, church! We’re going to read James 1:26-2:13 this morning.  As you turn there I’m going to show off my Father’s Day present.  I promise there’s a point to this.

I like shoes, but I’m also pretty cheap.  I also wear a size 15, which you can’t just walk into most stores and buy.

When it comes to basketball shoes I usually buy whatever I can find in my size.  But Monika and the kids knew I had my eye on these Jayson Tatum shoes in black and red.  They were hard to find, especially in my size.

They found them online, but they had to be very careful.  Finding genuine shoes can be tricky.  The counterfeit sneaker market is huge.  By the end of 2023, it’ll be valued at nearly $600 billion.  That’s 1.5 times more than the legitimate sneaker market.

(https://runrepeat.com/counterfeit-shoes-statistics)

To combat the counterfeiters, the sneaker industry has come up with a process knowns as legit checking.  I found out that for a mere $200, you can get certified as a legit checker.  You learn the difference in stitching between genuine sneakers and counterfeits.  You learn how much the genuine shoes weigh, how they’re supposed to smell, and how they’re packaged.

Read More

View on Youtube

Good morning, church! Kids who are four years old through the second grade can go to children's church this time.

We're still in James 1 this week. Last week started this study that will take us into December by pointing out the big idea of the book of James.  Genuine faith is visible faith.

The relationship between faith and works is a relationship the New Testament spends a lot of time on.  Some would even accuse Paul, who is the most prolific writer of the New Testament, of disagreeing with James.  Paul develops a really clear argument for salvation being by grace alone.  James focuses on the connection between faith and works, so it's possible to see the two as coming at salvation from separate angles.

The great Reformer, Martin Luther, even went so far as to look on James as a second-tier letter due to its emphasis on a faith that is made visible through works.  He wrote this:

St. Paul's epistles, especially Romans, Galatians, and Ephesians, and St. Peter's first epistle are the books that show you Christ and teach you all that is necessary and salvatory for you to know . . . St. James' epistle is really an epistle of straw, compared to these others, for it has nothing of the nature of the gospel about it.

Though this epistle of St. James was rejected by the ancients, I praise it and consider it a good book, because it sets up no doctrines of men but vigorously promulgates the law of God.

(Source: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/the-epistle-of-straw-reflections-on-luther-and-the-epistle-of-james/)

I think Luther's view of James was skewed because he lived in a culture that promoted a heavy emphasis on works, but little on true faith.

That's certainly a risk, though I don't believe James and Paul are at odds at all.  They support one another beautifully.  Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10 that (For) we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

Genuine faith is visible faith.  If we belong to Jesus, if we have repented of our sin and places our trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, the Holy Spirit will work in such a way in our lives that our faith simply must be visible in the way we live.

James opened his letter by talking about how genuine faith responds to trials, to difficulties, to suffering, because it's in our darkest times that genuine faith shows itself most clearly.

Genuine faith views three things properly: human sinfulness, God's goodness, and the necessity of Scripture.

Trials are still the context where we pick up this morning.  We'll read 1:13-28, where we'll see three characteristics of genuine faith.

Read More

View on YouTube

Good morning, church! Kids who are four years old through the second grade can go to children's church this time.

Those of us who stay here are going to be starting something new today. I am excited to get to spend the next couple of months with you in the book of James.

There are several men named James in the New Testament. Most scholars agree the Jame who rote this letter was James the half-brother Jesus Christ. He’s mentioned in Matthew 13 and Mark 6. Over in John 7 we learn he was a skeptic.

But grace has a way of reaching the unreachable. During those forty incredible days between the resurrection and ascension of Jesus appeared to James and his doubt transformed into faith (1 Corinthians 15:7).

Read More

View on youtube

Hello FBC family! My name is Jerry Patton, and I’m a pastoral resident here at FBC Centralia. Most of the teaching I do is to our students on Wednesday nights and in the evenings – like next Sunday’s start of our series of Sunday evening classes. I’ll be teaching on the first half of the book of Matthew, but we’ll also have a church history course taught by Mike Hahn and a women’s group walking through Philippians. As we are talking evangelism and the making of disciples, these courses are a great way for you to be discipled.

If you are a kid aged 4 through 2nd grade, you are dismissed to head to children’s church. If you are a parent and want your child to join the other kids for their lesson but aren’t sure where to send your kid to, just have them follow all those other kids that are heading out now.

Read More

View on YouTube

Good morning, church! Since this is the fourth Sunday we don’t have children’s church today so we’ll all be staying together right here and studying Acts 8.

Parents, I want to remind you of a handful of things as we open God’s Word together.  Our children’s team has prepared some activity bags just for you.  We don’t do that to keep your children occupied, we do it to help them learn and I’m grateful for the folks who put those together every week. We have a mother’s room just outside the sanctuary if you need to change a diaper or feed a baby or anything like that please make use of that space. There’s a livestream of the sermon playing there so you won’t miss much.  Lastly, we could the noise coming from you pew for the next 40 minutes or so as a blessing.  We’re thankful God has given us a next generation to disciple and gatherings like this play a huge role in that discipleship process.  So don’t stress if your kids aren’t perfectly quiet during the sermon.  I hope they’re able to learn something right alongside you today.

As a matter of fact, today is the perfect time for us to all be together because we’re talking about something that a truth that is for every single Christian today.

Read More

View on Youtube

Good morning, church! Four-year-olds through second graders are free to head off to Children’s Church. The rest of you can open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 3. That's our starting point, but we’re going to be on a tour of the Bible today.

We just finished an overview of Mark’s gospel. We studied 16 chapters in 18 weeks. It felt like it flew by. The end of that study encouraged us to go and tell.

So we’re going to take three weeks and unpack what going and telling looks like for people who live in Mid-Missouri in the year 2023. There’s a sense in which it’s the same as it has looked for all Christians, but there’s some specific application of God’s Word for our time and place, so we’ll try to be as clear as we can when it comes to application.

Normally, we preach expositionally here at FBC. That means we study the Bible book-by-book. If you’ve been here for the past year, you’ve studied Psalm 120-134 (the Psalms of Ascent), parts of Exodus, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, and the gospel of Mark.

We’ll get back to expositional preaching soon, but I think this break is important. When we consider what it means to go and tell the story of Jesus, we are talking about evangelism.

Evangelism is explaining the gospel in a way that calls lost people to trust Christ for salvation. That’s all it is. It’s neither rocket surgery nor brain science.

Evangelism is vital, church. Without evangelism, the local church is dead in one generation, do you realize that?

Read More

Good morning, FBC Family and guests!

Kids who are four years old through entering the second grade, you’re dismissed to go to children’s church.

The rest of us are going to be in Mark 16. Way back in April, on the Sunday after Easter, we read these words together: "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." That is Mark 1:1. We’re at the end of the book, but not at the end of the gospel this morning. It’s very important we realize that Mark writes about the beginning of the gospel but not the end. The gospel facts are set, but its work is still continuing as we speak. Mark 1 is the beginning of the gospel. Mark 16 is simply the continuation of the gospel, and it's my hope that we leave this room today with an even clearer sense of how that Gospel work is continuing in our lives.

We’ll read the whole chapter, beginning in Mark 16:1:

Read More

View on Youtube

Good morning FBC Family and guests! If you are four years old through entering the second grade, you’re dismissed to go to children’s church.  The rest of us are going to be in Mark 15.  We’ll begin our reading in verse 33.

Next week we will finish our summer overview of Mark’s gospel.  Just to give you a heads up on where we’re headed during our morning gatherings, we’ll spend 3 weeks looking at what the Bible says about evangelism, then on September 10 we will start studying the book of James and that will carry us all the way to December.  We’ll get a reading guide with the sermon schedule out to you pretty soon so that you can follow along.

For today, though, we’re reading what one commentator calls the high point of salvation history.

(Source: https://www.gty.org/library/sermons-library/41-82)

Let’s read it together:

Read More

Good morning, FBC Family and guests! This is the fifth Sunday of July, so we don't have children's church today. All the kids from age 4 and up are going to be staying with us as we study Mark 14, and I'm glad that you're here.

Parents, we do have nursery available for the littlest ones. There's also a mom's room just outside the doors to my right in case you need to change a diaper or feed a baby or anything like that. We encourage you to make use of that space as you need to. There's a livestream of the sermon playing in there, so you should be able to keep up.

We've already read most of Mark 14 as a part of our worship time this morning. This chapter is one of the most—can I say entertaining?—I know the point of the Bible is not to entertain, but it's a narrative. And within this one-chapter narrative, you'll find a piece of just about every genre of television or literature there is. You have the inner drama of betrayal, and you have the outlandish action of shattering an incredibly expensive jar of perfume. You have Jesus sending the disciples on a quest—verse 13, "Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him."

You have the vivid imagery of the Last Supper. Judas and Peter both betray Jesus. I'm telling you, whatever you like on TV, it's here: courtroom drama, true crime, cooking show, maybe even some light comic relief. It's a huge chapter. As we look at it, I hope we'll see a few things: the gospel made crystal clear in the institution of the Lord's Supper and the deadly sins of anger, doubt, and betrayal contrasted with the beautiful full-hearted worship of one nameless woman.

Read More

View on Youtube

Good morning FBC Family and guests! Turn with me to Mark 13.  If you don’t have a Bible of your own, you can find today’s text on page 901 of the black bibles in the pew rack in front of you.  If you don't have a bible at all, there are some new ones in the foyer just outside those doors behind you.  Please, take one of those with you as our gift.  We want everyone to have a copy of God’s Word that you can read and understand.

We hope not only to understand God’s Word, but to apply it for our good and His glory.  Today’s text could be a difficult one in both of those regards, but I don’t think it has to be.  We’re coming to the end of the final week of Jesus’s earthly life.  He’s not concerned with that at the moment, though.  His focus shifts all the way to the end of time.  We’re going to study the whole chapter, but we’re going to start off with the bookends.  We’ll read verses 1-2 and then verses 32-37 as our initial reading.

Let’s read, then we’ll take a moment to pray before we start unpacking everything Jesus teaches in the 37 verses.

Read More

Open your bibles to Mark 12.  We’re covering Mark 11:27 all the way through the end of chapter 12 today, but we’ll start our reading in Mark 12.

We’ll see five debates between Jesus and assorted leaders of the nation of Israel, one parable, and one word of practical application.  If that sounds like a lot, it’s because it is a lot.  But, I trust God will make His Word clear and our time in it fruitful.

There’s a challenge today I want you to walk out of this room considering when we're all done. It's the aim of the sermon in one sentence.

Set your life on the only Cornerstone that will stand in God’s Kingdom.

We’re all building our lives on something.  The chief priests, scribes, elders, Pharisees, Herodians, and Sadducees we’ll encounter in Mark 11-12 all built their lives on failing cornerstones.  Jesus points that out to them in our text.  We’ll find ourselves groaning a little bit as we identify with the sinfulness we see on display in these men.

Read More

Open your Bibles to Mark 10. We're covering 52 verses this morning, but our initial reading is shorter. We'll read Mark 10:32-45. This is the highpoint of the passage, and it's the gravitational center of Mark's gospel. Everything we've studied so far is building up to this moment.

After we unpack that section, we'll see how the Pharisees, disciples, a young wealthy man, Peter, James, John, and the rest of the disciples all misapply the truth of Mark 10:32-45. And we'll close by seeing how one man gets it right.

Let's read together from Mark 10:32 and following

Read Mark 10:32-45

Pray

Dr. Jones was in a high-stress environment. He had been on an exhausting and dangerous journey. His father was dying. Men behind him threatened his life, and he stood in the entrance to a place where many men had already died.

Read More

View on YouTube

Open your Bibles to Mark 9. If you don't have a Bible, there are some black ones in the pew rack in front of you. Today's text can be found on page 901 in those.

We're going to read Mark 9:30-50 this morning. I'll read it out loud, and I invite you to follow along silently in your copy of God's Word. After I read, we'll spend some time praying for the Holy Spirit's guidance as we study together.

Read Mark 9:30-50. (Prayer)

Introduction

A fibrous mineral was discovered in a Greek quarry around 4500 years ago. It was eventually woven into tablecloths, handkerchiefs, lamp wicks, and theater curtains.

It was thought of as an incredibly versatile and useful mineral. Legendary explorer Marco Polo wrote home about it during one of his journeys.

Read More