First Baptist Church - Troy, TX

We all want to feel like we're welcome. At home, at church, and with the people we work it's important to feel that people are glad we're part of the team. In this second part of our message in Psalm 23, we're going to see that God welcomes His people with warmth and gladness. He honors those who trust in Him. If you're following Jesus in faith, you need to know that God welcomes you into His presence. 

Have you ever had a need that you could not meet on your own? All of us, at one time or another, have experienced circumstances where we needed God's provision in our lives. Using the metaphor for a shepherd caring for his sheep, David wrote Psalm 23 to remind himself. and everyone who would read it, of God's provision throughout his life. Psalm 23 is a powerful reminder to us of God's gracious and faithful provision for those who follow Him in faith.

As we end our “Forward” series it's time to ask the question, “What about my place in God's plan for realizing His dream for His church?” In the bible, God compares the church to the human body. As our bodies are one body with many parts, so also the church is one body of Christ with many different parts. Every believer has a place in Jesus' church and every believer has a role to fulfill. We'll learn today how we can begin to discover where our spot is in Jesus' church. When we discover our place in the body and the gifts, talents, and abilities we've been given to serve God and His people, we can be part of moving forward into God's dream for His church. 

This is our final podcast on “discipleship”. Today we'll take a look at some additional things that Jesus said about following Him. And we will look at some questions – Is becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ worth it? And will it be easy to be a disciple? And, if following Jesus is difficult at times, is there any help for us!? Let's take a look at the answers to these questions.

This week we continue looking at how we go forward in the power of the Holy Spirit. God has given Christians His Holy Spirit to be with us and in us. When we submit to the Spirit's control and guidance in our lives then we can find the strength and power to do the things that God wants and experience the life change that He desires. When a body of believers together are living in the filling of God's Holy Spirit they can go forward like never before.

Have you ever tried to change something in your life but just lacked the power to get it done? Overcoming a sin habit, forgiving yourself for some wrong you did, forgiving someone who hurt you, sharing Christ with another person, making your marriage better? We all know what it's like to be up against change we want to see without the strength to accomplish it. Where do we find the power to do the things God wants us to do? Answer: the Holy Spirit. After Jesus returned to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to live in and with Christians. It's through His strength alone that we can see the kind of life change God wants for us. 

In our last podcast, we looked at the challenge that Jesus gave to the large crowds of people listening to Him. He challenged them to follow Him. And he told them what that meant as He discussed preferring Christ over all other people, denying ourselves, taking up our crosses daily… Following Christ requires a total commitment of your life to that end. He also talked about the narrow gate and the wide gate – both of them life choices that people make as they seek eternal life. In this podcast, we will take a look at these “gates” and the choices people make as well as why they make those choices.

Between the crucifixion and Jesus' return to heaven, His followers experienced a whirlwind of emotion. From absolute heartbreak and fear to unspeakable joy. The fact that Jesus was alive and promised to return changed everything for His followers. It has the power to do that for us also. The question we must answer is, “Am I living today knowing that Jesus is alive and will return?”

For Jesus' followers, Resurrection Sunday was filled with wonder, awe, and confusion. Jesus had died and been buried. Now His body is gone. Angels told the women that He had risen and was alive. These same women saw Jesus and told the apostles that He was alive and was going to meet them soon. The apostles, still stunned by the death of Jesus and their broken expectations of Him, just couldn't believe that He had risen. We all experience times of broken expectations when God's will doesn't make sense. Jesus' conversation with two men in Luke 24 helps us see the role God's word in the bible has in helping center our hearts around God's will.

Did you know that the word “Christian” only occurs 3 times in the New Testament of the Bible? The word “disciple” appears much more frequently and, in fact, is the word that Jesus used for those who believed in Him. So what IS a disciple? And perhaps more importantly, are YOU a disciple? In today's podcast, we'll take a look at those questions.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus did the last week of His life before He went to the cross? What was He doing on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, before He was crucified at 9:00 a.m. Friday morning? The Bible shares that with us. The Bible also describes in detail what Jesus went through before He was crucified and what He experienced on the cross. Listen in as we learn what our Savior endured on the road to the cross.

Spiritual Growth. Every Christian needs to grow, but are we willing to do what it takes to see it happen in our lives?  As we continue our series, Forward: Moving into God's Dream for His Church, we're going to look at the importance of spiritual growth in our relationship with Christ. In this message we'll learn that spiritual growth happens when we make a commitment to obey God's command to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Practically, we experience spiritual growth from a desire to know God, as we stay connected to the company of other Christians, and as we apply what we learn to our daily lives. 

From the very beginning, Jesus gave His church a special mission. His words in Matthew 28:19-20 state it exactly, “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” For the church to go forward we must take the good news to the world that God has provided His Son as a Savior for all people. This week we'll see how the Gospel message spread throughout the known world and how God wants us to continue sharing the Good News about Jesus to people today. 

As we continue to look at overcoming the greatest hindrance to moving forward, we'll see how sin crept into the church from the very beginning. God clearly revealed to the believers then that sin has no place in the church body. We'll also ask and answer the question, “How does someone step out onto the path that leads to sin against God?” Learning to recognize the pathway that leads to sin can help us avoid stepping onto it.  

A cavity begins beneath the surface of your tooth and, if not dealt with, can become a major problem. In the same way, sin in the lives of God‘s people can lead to disaster if not addressed. This powerful passage in Joshua 7 helps us understand God's view of sin and its impact on God's people.

What does it take to be able to do the things God wants us to? To go forward into His dream for our churches and our personal lives? Answer: The presence and power of God Himself. Today we'll look at a well-known account from Joshua 6 where the Israelites would learn the priority of God's presence and power as they went forward into the land God had promised them. It's the same for us. If we're going to move forward, we can only go with God's presence and His power at work in us. 

In the early days of the church, God's people saw exponential growth. In a matter of a few years, the church had grown by thousands of people who had come to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Was this an isolated event or can we see a move of God in our communities and church bodies like that today? In this message we'll see the priority that the church placed on prayer and the power of God demonstrated in response. God wants to do more in our lives than we know. Prayer is one of the things that opens the door to realizing God's dream for His church.

What importance does God put on the priority of prayer in the lives of His people? What does it look like when God's people pray? What does it look like when God's people fail to pray? Maybe you've never considered these questions. In the following two messages in our series entitled, “Forward: Advancing into God's Dream for His Church”, we're going to see that God places the highest priority on prayer. In fact, cultivating a life of prayerful dependence on God is the only way forward into realizing His dream for our lives and for His church. We'll examine two examples from God's people in the Bible: one where they fail to pray and one where prayer is the top priority. We're sure to gain some good insights into prayerful dependence and realizing God's dream for His church.  

The first nine verses of the book of Joshua are the rudder on the ship for everything God will tell Israel to do to realize His dream for them in the new land. If Israel was going to succeed in realizing God's dream for them in a new land, careful obedience to His word would have to be their highest priority. As we go forward into the things that God wants for us, His dream for this church body, the rudder on our ship is the same – careful obedience to what God has revealed to us in His word.

God has a dream for His church; a foreseeable future of the church as it can and must be. God has called us to come and join Him in realizing His dream for His church. What is God's dream for His church? Jesus said in John 14:3, “I will come again and take you to be with me, so that where I am you may be too.” That's God's dream for the church. As we journey through this series, we're going to learn what it takes to become a church body that moves forward into realizing the dream that God has for us. 

We've seen that God is our encourager, that we can find encouragement from God's word, but there's one more source of encouragement we need – one another. God created us with the capacity for relationships – both with Him and with other people. When we encourage one another, we're joining God's work in another person's life to build them up through our encouragement to be who He wants them to be. That's a great thought! That's what encouragement is all about in the body of Christ – helping another Christian be all that God wants them to be. 

When we need encouragement, we need it. Where can we find the encouragement we need when we're discouraged, disillusioned, or struggling to maintain our direction in following Christ? Answer: the Bible. It sounds very cliché and simplistic, but it's the best tangible resource we have to find encouragement we need. The Bible is God's word given to us. When we read it, believe it, and apply its truths to our lives, we'll discover that it really is a great source of encouragement.  

In the Gospel of Matthew we read the biblical account of the visit of the wise men. These men came from far in the East to seek the one who was “born King of the Jews”. Their example of faith, worship, and obedience to God sets a standard that all of us can learn from. From them we learn that faith and worship must be accompanied by obedience to what God has shown us. Are we giving the Lord Jesus Christ the priority that He deserves in our lives through faith, worship, and careful obedience to His commands?

In Luke 2:25-38 we meet two people who are often overlooked in the Christmas narrative: Simeon and Anna. This man and woman had served God faithfully all the long years of their lives, patiently waiting for Him to reveal the promised Messiah. God generously rewarded their patience and faithfulness when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple shortly after his birth. Their joy at finally seeing the Messiah was worth the wait. Waiting isn't something most of us enjoy, but learning how to wait for God's timing in our lives is an important part of following Christ. We'll learn from Simeon and Anna's example that we can wait for God who always keeps His promises at the right time.

To most people in Jesus' day shepherds were undesirable outcasts, but to God they were precious in His sight. The first proclamation of the gospel came to these men who lived on the ragged edge of society. His generous grace cut through social stigmas to bring them the light of the glorious good news, “Unto you a Savior is born! He is Christ the Lord!” If you've ever felt like you don't “measure up,” and God couldn't possibly have a generous plan for you, come learn from God's generous grace to the shepherds that He has His eye on you with plans of special generosity in mind.

God's outpouring of His generous grace to all mankind took hold of Mary's life in a way that changed everything. In one moment her plans for marriage, family, and her future hung in the balance of God's plan. Her response? “I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as You have said.” What do you do when God wants to pour out His generous grace through your life in a way you never imagined? When His call for you to follow Him into His plans for your life drastically changes the direction and plans you've made?

As we begin looking into the biblical narrative leading up to the birth of Christ in Luke's Gospel, we will meet an elderly couple who discovered that God's generous grace can break into our unwanted circumstances, our disappointments, and even our struggles to believe His promises. Though our individual circumstances differ, God has generous gifts of grace in store for all of us as we follow Him in faith, believe His promises, and obey His will for our lives.

From Genesis to Revelation we discover that God is generous. He delights in pouring out His generous grace upon people who come to Him in faith to follow Him. The greatest outpouring of God's grace happened when He sent His only Son Jesus to be our Savior from sin. Jesus set aside the riches and glories of heaven to become human and die in our place to set us free from sin.

How does cultivating a lifestyle of giving thanks affect our relationship with God and other people? How does it change us? Learn what the bible teaches us about the transforming power of gratitude. 

What should it look like for us respond to God's goodness in our lives with thanksgiving? The account of the grateful leper in Luke 17:11-19 provides us with a powerful example of gratitude on display.  

There are several roadblocks to prayer, the first being simply not praying! Some additional roadblocks are asking with the wrong motives, unresolved sin in in our lives, busyness, unresolved conflict with another person, and unbelief. Let's look at all of these.

Paul Malmin, Bubba Ellis, Larry Bulls, and Craig McMurtry share testimonies and great music with us this morning.

The key to praying prayers that get answered is not necessarily praying longer or harder, with better words, or with more people, but in praying from a life that is being transformed (Rm 12:2), in the leading of God's Holy Spirit as He directs our hearts toward His agenda and the things He wants to accomplish for the glory of His name.  

Getting answers to our prayers isn't about praying longer, harder, or with more heart; it's about asking God to do what will glorify Him most. We learn to do this as we deepen our relationship with Him. When we start to pray this way, things come into focus and we'll experience joy we never imagined we could.

Ray and Martha Blundell were missionaries for many years in Africa. They share how they became missionaries and some of the highlights of their lives on the mission field and after.

What do you think God is like? What I really think God is like will do more to affect my praying than anything else. What we believe about God – what we think He is really like – affects our expectations of what He really can and really will do. The beginning place of praying like you've never prayed before is getting a view of God that you have never had before.

When they are powerless, God comes through for His people and does for them and for His glory what they never could have done on their own. Let's look at 3 snapshots of prayer – King Hezekiah when Assyria threatens Israel, Nehemiah as he faces the huge task of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, and the church praying for the imprisoned apostle Peter.

Titus: Getting the big picture. If you and God sat down and He gave you His evaluation of your everyday behavior, not to condemn you, but to help build you up, how would do? How would your behavior line up with sound teaching from the bible?

Keeping our focus sharp. Summary and final instructions.

In our last sermon, we looked at our conduct toward authority. Today we will look at our conduct toward people other than those in authority. Through our words and our actions we are to show grace toward other people.

Conduct toward outsiders. Our relationship with the culture around us has a profound effect upon our ability to carry out our mission to reach the lost with effectiveness and real impact. Not only must we be known as those who are good for God's glory, we must be known as those who do good to those around us, whether they are believers or not—for God's glory.

These verses provide the explanation for the behavior that agrees with sound doctrine that has been laid out for us in the previous verses. 

Conduct that is consistent with sound teaching– Part 2. The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. The glory of God is revealed through our lives. Here we look at the expected conduct of women in the church.

Conduct that is consistent with sound teaching– Part 1.

Guest Pastor Roger White spoke on the book of Titus for his sermon titled "We Are Saved to Do Good"

Pastor Chris Cannon continues his series titled, The Real Church to the Real World

Today we welcome Guest Pastor and church member, Roger White, as he presents his sermon titled "The Four Stages of Spiritual Growth"

Pastor Chris Cannon continues his new series titled, The Real Church to the Real World

Pastor Chris Cannon begins his new series titled, The Real Church to the Real World