McLeansville Baptist Church

Everyone has their own opinion and idea about who God is. While there is much truth in the perceptions that man has about God, nothing holds as much weight as what God reveals to us about Himself. Though simple in understanding, there is great power and direction that comes from our understanding of who God has told us He is!

In life, so much seems out of our control. We can feel helpless, overwhelmed, and outmatched - until we turn our attention away from ourselves, and place it back on Christ. What is the key to accessing this elusive confidence, and what exactly does God require in order for us to acquire it

This is the hope of our time! That the generation of the church which is rising up in this era will be the generation that says, “Enough is enough with this wandering in the wilderness of our half obedience to God! We want to go over! We will face the giants in the land! We will believe the promise of God! We will be the ones who bring Christ to the world like this generation of the world has never seen before!”For us today, Canaan is Christlikeness! The wilderness life is the life of salvation but not surrender. It is a life of frustration, of missing something, but it is not the life we were saved to live! 

Do you want to know what childlike humility and faith are? Study Jesus. He was his Father's Beloved Son. And there was nothing fake about him. When he laughed, when he wept, when he got angry, when he was frustrated, when he was in prayer, or when he was in a fight. He was his Father's Beloved Son!It is the childlike heart that opens the Kingdom of God to all who truly want to enter it and live with God, in his plan, with Him at the center. The path of Christlike humility leads us into and forward in all the "Great" ways Jesus has given us in the gospel.

The city, and thereby the people, for whom God is in the midst, at the very center, wil be the people who are unmoved, unshaken by the fear, the offense culture, or the cynicism pervading our time. The cynical person is the faithless person, they have lost the capacity to trust; other people and ultimately God. What is cynicism and how do we overcome it by living with God at teh center of our life?

MBC kicks off Missions Conference 2025 with a great message from Brother Benji Dryden, Caribbean Field Director for Baptist International Missions Inc.

Knowing God is our greatest goal in all of life, ministry, and into eternity. The pathway to knowing God is learning to "Be Still," and that not only means letting go of hurry and busyness and opening space for God to fill our schedules, and ultimately our hearts, but it also means overcoming some barriers to knowing God, which all of us must contend with. One of those is the barricade of Forgiveness. We must learn to let go of offense, bitterness, and anger so that we can know God and by that be ready to carry out the gospel mission of making Him known.

“Be still and know God…”Hurry is a problem. Rushing is not helping. I need more pausing and being present to God.It is so counter-intuitive, that hurry is holding us back. It is true for many of us, I am sure. We see problems, we know the weaknesses of our own souls, and we want to do something about it; we want to rush to solutions, we want to fix the issue, and fix other people.God's word to us is, “Be still,” learn to ease off the pressure to try and make it right, loosen the tight grip on the problem, let go. What do you need? What is the trouble in your life right now? It probably feels like you need to do something to address it. And you do, we always have something we can do. But the first order of business, if we are ever going to know true victory, is to learn how to trust God in the trouble.

God tells us, “Where there is no vision the people perish” (Proverbs 29:11).To perish is to loosen, meaning, to decline spiritually, ethically, and morally.Vision is divine guidance; it is to hear from God. Not hearing more about God, but to come to the sort of spiritual life in which we can receive directly from God his direction and truth.There are two kinds of letting go. Proverbs 29:11 is letting go of God. Psalm 46:10 is about letting go to God.“Be still…” is no small thing in our day. We are not people accustomed to stillness. We all live in a world of constant noise and restless activity, and we are expected to keep up and pay attention if we are going to make anything of ourselves, or do anything worth being noticed for. Yet, in our most trying moments, the urgent call that comes is most often, “Don't just stand there, do something!” Yet, in the Bible, over and over, we find that the people of God receive his salvation by that very decisive and obedient act of being still.

There is no other book in all the world, in all of history which is qualified as “The law of the Lord!” The word of the living God of Heaven and Earth! The same God who made the heavens which declare his glory (v.1) is the same Lord who gave us his law, or his book of precepts and statutes for life. Here, contained in this book are all the instructions of life, here is God's way, in print, and it is settled, it will not change. There are a whole lot of blockades in the modern Christian life to keep us from the word of God. But not one of them is a worthwhile or acceptable excuse. When we neglect the word of God, we are abandoning the greatest source of power in the universe to bring us all that we could ever dream of. So, we need a plan to help us stay in the perfect law of the Lord this year and overcome all the blockades that normally hinder us.

Paul's theology of money and generosity (And by the way we need to have one too), is that money is a tool for building the kingdom of God and a weapon for fighting in righteousness for the Kingdom of God. He clearly got this from Jesus who teaches us that generosity is not simply an occasional good thing we do, but as he modeled for us, it is to be practice of our daily discipleship to Christ.

In the biblical account of the visit of the Magi we have a powerful challenge to consider as we come to the close of this Christmas season. These wise men came to find Jesus because they had seen his star, and though they did not have all of the answers, they had faith to go search for him. Yet, the priests and scribes who knew the scrolls and the scriptures, knew where to find them, which ones to pull out, and what line on the page to reference, unmoved by the possibility that the long awaited Messiah may have appeared!

Here we are, the final Sunday of 2024. This was the question that came to me early this morning, “If I could go back one year to where I was and what I was expecting, closing 2023 and moving into a new year, what would I have expected to be true about me by now?” Whatever my answer to that question would have been a year ago, I am not satisfied with the answer as it is today. Still, this is a question worth keeping before me, and I think it is a good question for you as well. I see good answers in Hebrews 12, but they are the result of abiding in a particular place which we find in Luke 10.

How peaceful does your life seem right now? Or a better question may be, how are you living in the peace which Jesus brought? Peace means prosperity, quietness, rest. Does your life feel prosperous? What about quiet, or at rest? Why is it that for so many of us who have received the gift of Jesus, we fail to regularly live in the full potential of His gift?

What would a Christmas be without everything normally associated with it except the coming of Jesus into our world? Imagine, no lights, no parties, no trees, no candles, no carols, no gifts, nothing of that sort. What if all we had was a presence to God in which the message came, “Christ is born”? I know how difficult it is for us to even imagine such a thing. But that is precisely what Mary had in store. And nine months before Jesus would be born, he was miraculously conceived in her virgin womb. A holy and gracious act of God which could never have happened otherwise, but a conception that would not have happened in Mary's heart, mind, and body, without her important part in it all. But it was a season of her life in which it was all about Christ being formed in her and brought forth to the world, which is still the true story of Christmas. If Christ is to be born in us, manifest in our lives into the world this season, we will need both the effort of making room for him to come and the power of the Holy Spirit to bring about the conception. And we must consider, “How?”

Advent, this season of looking for Christs' Coming, has been largely lost to the world.  Christmas itself has become far more about consumerism, gift buying, heaping upon ourselves many things we really do not need, all in the name of Christ, which, as I understand it, would certainly qualify as taking the Lord's name in vain.But the stores start earlier each year it seems, in October we are seeing decorations, and before Thanksgiving we hear the holiday songs, and by December 1st half the crowd is already tired and ready for it to be over. The secular culture has their own version of Advent; the coordinated effort to get you buying, rushing, and crushing your soul by December 24th!And that, my friends, is why we need the Advent Season. It is a time to slow down, to truly consider the meaning behind this tradition of celebrating Christs' coming. To recognize that he has come, he will come, and he is coming even now to those who will open their hearts and make room for him to enter and fill their soul with his peace, his hope, and his joy. 

There is nothing that would help us more than to learn how to truly live with the Blessed Hope of Christs' coming as the daily calibration, and as needed recalibration, of our souls! The coming again of Jesus is his final act of redemption, the consummation of the salvation of his people. When he shall come all will be made right, and whole.

In Psalm 71 we find one of those Big Truths about how to live and to fight the good fight, this Psalm is about learning to stay in the Refuge of God! God is our Safe Place, and our only place of true security is in abiding in Him. And David's prayer is “O God, help me stay in the Refuge, let me continue in your protection, deliverance, and salvation! You are my rock and fortress!”

Everything we need to know, everything we need to do, every help and healing we need to find are right here in this word from Jesus, “Continue in my word!”In our day, we hear the word “continue” and probably we think about moving or going forward, being in motion. But that is not the meaning of Jesus here. The word continue, even in our day, does not first imply moving at all, but rather, just as Jesus is saying to us, it means to remain, to stay where you are (And of course, if we find that we are not there, then we need to move, get there, and then stay).And of course, if we do this, if we remain in Christs' word, which is to say in obedience and faith, then we will move forward in Christ's word.We might want to continue in deepening our faith, continue to increase our knowledge of God and his will, continue to be involved and invested in the Great Commission, but more than just continuing in terms of doing things, to really continue with passion and total surrender to God, to continue in living as though we really do believe that all of this life is about the mission we are here for until we are called to our true home! This is the Way of Jesus! And he has shown us in this chapter, John 8, His Way of Continuing! 

People are tired. Tired people are weak. Weak people are vulnerable. I imagine that there are more than a few of us here this morning who can relate to that. We live in an hour of the age in which chronic fatigue is a battle. When we are weary, worn down, heavy laden, discouraged, and tapped out with life, with ministry, with caring for our family, it is not because God has failed us, it is not because life is just too hard, it is because we are not leaning into his yoke, learning from him, and taking his rest. Yet, the invitation to come, take, learn, and find rest still stands.

Politics, as you know, are essentially nitroglycerin in our day. You remember that? From the old westerns, they would have to handle those bottles of liquid dynamite, so carefully because they could go off with even too much jarring. That is where we live now. It is the culture of our society, not just at election time, but year-round, 24/7, and it only gets worse when it comes time for voting.  What is our place in all of this? What do we do when there are obvious issues at the heart of the matter which are unquestionably right? Does platform matter most or character? What would Jesus do in 2024? I am for Jesus and Jesus is for God's Kingdom, God's Glory, God's Coming Restoration of all things. Jesus does not want to be President of the USA. But, does that mean that I have no interest or responsibility in the matters of our country's government? If Jesus were an American citizen, what would he say and do about all of this?  

What is a good life? When a man or woman comes to the end of their journey, how will they know they have lived a good life? Paul wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, “I am now ready to be offered..." How did he know? Fought, Finished, Kept, and now Ready!  And really at the center of it all is Faith on the part of Paul, but Grace on the Part of God. When we look back on Abraham's life, we can remember great acts of faith, but we can also remember many great failures of his faith.But here in Genesis 22 is the High Water Mark of Abraham's life. This is the crowning event, the moment in his life which everything that has passed has been preparing him for.

What causes us to feel successful and secure in our faith? For too many Christians, it is anything but our love and devotion to Jesus. The path to revival starts with a renewed diligence in the guarding of our hearts against worldliness. Sardis had allowed their name and renown to be the driving force in their "work for God," but in reality, they were nothing more than a gathering of vain, empty religious practitioners. The warning to Sardis still holds true for the church today!

Of all the ways to make application and find understanding in this story of Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac, alongside Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael, the word dysfunctional comes to mind. Before we came to the dysfunction of Abraham's household, we had already had the dysfunctional homes of Adam, Noah, and Lot, just to name a few. The one thing all of these had in common (besides their trouble with living true to God's way) is that they are all people whom God loved, claimed, and delivered from their foolish ways. Thank God for grace! Of course, even with God's mercy and forgiveness there will be casualties of our sin. We cannot sow the seeds of the flesh and not reap the thorns and thistles (and that is putting it mildly). In every one of these examples there is loss and pain and collateral damage. Yet, God remains faithful, true to his word. He comes to them in their mess, and he redeems because he is good, he is just, he is holy, and he has a plan for the salvation of man.

This entire section of scripture (Genesis 21:1-8) is one of the most encouraging, excitable, and reassuring passages you can find. It declares with a mighty voice, “God Keeps His Promises!”In the life and pilgrimage of Abraham and Sarah, this day is a day like no other they had experienced and shared.  As God had promised, “It's a Boy!”  Twenty-five long years of waiting, sometimes running ahead of God, sometimes failing to trust God, but never, ever, not once, being forsaken or forgotten by God! And now, here is a passage dripping with joy and gratitude!God is Faithful. We all know what it is like to experience a broken promise, but there is One who is true! There is One who will never leave you, nor forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)! There is One who has said, “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jer. 31:3), and you can trust Him!

This instruction is coming from an apostle who very much believed Jesus would return in his time, and is written to a church (Thessalonica) which was very taken with the possibility of Jesus coming any moment. As such, if this was the pertinent instruction for them 2000 years ago, how much more ought we to take this to heart now? Believe and Speak the Truth that Christ is Coming! Behave and Be Together in this Truth that Christ is Coming! What would that require of us today? How should the church look and function? What should be the most vital interest of the church body gathered together? What is the purpose behind the things we do as a church? How do our activities fit into preparation for Jesus' return? How is the church to live in the hour of Christs' expected return?

In kingdom language, being truly humble means to be as a little child. To be great in God's kingdom, that is, to be someone with power, influence, and leadership, you must humble yourself. What does it mean to “humble yourself?” There is no need to speculate about it, Jesus tells and shows us, as he brings before the disciples a “little child.” Clearly, there are lessons we need to learn about kingdom greatness and true humility, from the nature of little children.

Psalm 45 is not simply a song about Solomon, it is a song about the True King of all Kings! Christ is the King Eternal and he is worthy. All earthly, all national, all political, all social allegiances, affections, and attentions being subjected to our first allegiance, affection and attention, which is our King and his Kingdom!

When we fear man more than we fear God, and put self-preservation ahead of obedience, we not only compromise our own soul, but we put those we love in danger. Yet, the true story of this chapter, really of all Abraham's life and all those who love God, is not our failure, but God's faithfulness!

Every emotion was given to us by God, and therefore, serves a purpose to draw us closer to God. We certainly see many instances where fear lead an individual to making a terrible decision, but is there a lesson to be learned from someone who channeled fear in the right way?

Proverbs 16:25 says, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” The entire account of Lot's life is that “way that seemeth right” but ending in death played out. The end of the story, the end of Genesis 19, as awful as it is to read and take in, demonstrates this truth, that fear was driving this whole ugly mess. The Seed of Sin and the Fruit of Fear. Destroyed lives, ugliness in the heart and home, a man's life fading into the background of defeat and sadness, this became the legacy of Lot. When Fear drives the train, it will drive it off the rails and into the ground hard! Paul reminds Timothy that God has not given us “the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). So, we begin there. We recognize that there is a “spirit of fear” and so we must deal with that; but we also recognize that we have been given spiritual power, agape love, and the capability of a disciplined mind, or self-control.

Proverbs 16:25 tells us, "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." How easily any one of us can fall into and travel along this pathway of what seems right to us. Our reason is brought into play. To reason is the ability of the mind to think, process, and make judgments, or decisions about what to believe or what to do. All of this is affected by something, or some things, or more importantly, someone or other. Human reason is not evil, it is just flawed, marked by the effect of sin. This Proverb reveals something very dangerous and very dark about human reason. “There is a way that seemeth right…” literally means “straight” and it could be the right way, but obviously if it leads to death and not life it is the wrong way. The difference is the heart's desire. Who does the person desire to please? Who is the driver of this life? Self or God? Isaiah 35 tells us about "the way of holiness," which is not that which seemeth right to man, but that which is right to God. This is the way we must choose!

Abraham and Lot represent two sides of our life, the walk in the Spirit and the walk in the flesh. Abraham reminds me of that part of us which has been made new, the new creature, the new heart. Lot reminds me of that part of us which is still grasping for this world and clinging to the desires of the flesh.  People of God are not immune to the world, or to the temptations of the devil, we are quite capable of being drawn into the sin. Being forgiven, being born again in Christ, does not mean suddenly perfect, nor completely resistant to evil. We have a choice to make, we have choices to make on a regular basis.

Israel, more than any other nation, had seen God reveal Himself time and time again, yet they continually forsake God and commit adultery against Him. What is the response? Not only does God allow judgment, He brings judgment. The purpose of that judgment is twofold. To punish the wicked, who outright reject God, or who claim Him in name only, but in truth have no part with Him. To draw His true people back to Him.

When you find yourself in a place where you really want to help someone, you want them to be well, to be safe, spiritually you want to be saved, to know God, but you have done all you know to do, what do you do? In this incredibly intimate account of Abraham's intercession for the city of Sodom, and for his nephew Lot, we see Abraham, less the Fixer, and more the Truster: Testing God's Heart by Exposing His Own Trusting God's Will as Greater Than His Own

There are solemn warnings and priceless encouragements to be lifted out of this text, and we need to hear them today. There are four truths I want to show you here, two truths about God and two truths about each one of us here today, no matter our spiritual condition. All together these four truths will make it clear that we must take God seriously: God's Judgement is Still Certain God's Mercy is Still Available Our Compromise is Always Deadly Our Holiness is Always Life

Charles Spurgeon, known for his exceptional preaching is also known for his extraordinary battles with depression, once said, “Excess of joy or excitement must be paid for by subsequent depressions.” That is not a rule, but it surely is a proven fact of life. Of course, truer than the upper-downer days is a God who is unchanging, who is always faithful and true, and a huge part of the story of Abraham is a lesson about learning to trust God, letting God grow us up through the highs and lows, the victories and failures. Being fit to father was a process of 25 years of Abraham being fathered by God.

There is much in this chapter to demonstrate how God honors those who honor him. He honors Abraham as his friend. Yet, it cannot be overlooked that this great visit from God which Abraham received, brought with it both elation and depression. In this single day Abraham receives the final confirmation he has long waited for, and then the notification that God is about to bring judgement on a city where his nephew Lot is dwelling. Charles Spurgeon, known for his exceptional preaching, as well as his extraordinary battles with depression, once said, “Excess of joy or excitement must be paid for by subsequent depressions.” While this is not a rule, it surely is a proven fact of life. Of course, more true than the upper-downer days is a God who is unchanging, who is always faithful and true, and a huge part of the story of Abraham is a lesson about learning to trust God through the highs and lows.

Who would dispute this statement, that the greatest preacher ever was, is Jesus? Today, we are ordaining a young man into the ministry of preaching, and more specifically, pastoring, and there is no greater example of pastoring than Jesus, who said of himself, "I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). There is no higher example to follow in ministry than Jesus himself. The apostle Paul agrees, "Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" (Phillippians 3:12).  However, before we consider how Jesus preached, or what he preached, we should consider who Jesus was, as a man, as a minister, how was Jesus formed? How did the Son of Man become the Teacher, Minister, and Shepherd that he was, and is?

Romans 8 is a manifesto on the call of all who are saved to live the Spiritual Life. Not that it is a choice, in the strictest sense, because all who are "in Christ Jesus" will walk "after the Spirit." What is a "Spiritual Life" then? A spiritual life is one in which the believer, indwelt by God's Spirit, is daily acting in faith, being moved by hope, and growing in identity with, awareness of, and obedience to Jesus Christ. Spiritual life is a life in which we are being led by, filled with, and taught by the Holy Spirit of God to be "in Christ!"

Romans 8 is a manifesto on the call of all who are saved to live the Spiritual Life. Not that it is a choice, in the strictest sense, because all who are "in Christ Jesus" will walk "after the Spirit." What is a "Spiritual Life" then? A spiritual life is one in which the believer, indwelt by God's Spirit, is daily acting in faith, being moved by hope, and growing in identity with, awareness of, and obedience to Jesus Christ. Spiritual life is a life in which we are being led by, filled with, and taught by the Holy Spirit of God to be "in Christ!"

This is about timing not time. Do not mistake God's intentionality for slowness. God is not slow. He made light speed! The question is, at what speed are we living life? The speed of sound, the speed of the Smartphone, or the speed of God? There is a great lesson we can take from this study, that you, me, nor anyone is going to hurry God! When it comes to God's plan for the world, for your life, or for your child's life, you can disobey God, you can get ahead of God, you can fall behind God, but you will not hurry God! We are learning about waiting, trusting, conforming, and being renewed; because, after all, God is going to do what he promised, and even through the bumbling and fumbling of Abraham, the grace of God will prove sufficient.

Every phase of life offers us new challenges and difficulties. That's the reality of living in a broken, fallen world. So what are we to do? How do we not only survive, but thrive in the difficult life we have not only been given, but called to?

Ten years is a long time to wait, particularly when you have trusted God, uprooted your family, and journeyed by faith into a place you had no knowledge of and no connection to, other than the promise from God that he would make you the father of a great nation by giving you a son. Ten years is long enough to take anyone to the precipice of either Getting Ahead of God or of Abandoning their Faith altogether! Yet, waiting has a way of weeding out the faithlessness. When we wait on God this is not killing time, it is, as we are learning from Abram and Sarai, a season of refining, and of bringing the dross of faithlessness, idolatry, and of fear and doubt to the surface so God can remove it.

What you have before you, in this Action/Adventure chapter, is a man who is growing in grace, a man who is being changed by his walk with God. It has been months, perhaps years, since that flight in fear down to Egypt. Over that time Abram has been learning to trust God. In this chapter there are five marks of that growth evident in how Abram responds to the crisis.

We have all heard it said, "He/she has backslided." What does that mean? In short, there was once a time and place in life where that person was walking closer to God than they are now. There are people, perhaps listening right now, who are living like Abram in Egypt. You have compromised your faith, fearful that life was not going to work out, or that you would lose what you had, and in desperation you have turned to the world for support, supply, or comfort.  Maybe you have made hasty decisions, gotten ahead of God, and now you do not know how to recover.  Maybe there is sin dominating your life right now. Maybe you are living with anxiety and fear so you are “coping” by surrendering your soul to a life that looks like what God saved you out of. And it is costing you.  It is costing you a life of living in the fullness of joy, the restfulness of peace, and the grandeur of God's exceeding riches of grace! There is a way back from the backsliding. God's grace is just as sufficient to receive you, cleanse, renew you, and set you back up in His perfect will, as it was the day you first trusted in the Lord!

What makes a hero? Heroes are not the ones who soar in at times of trouble and rescue us from all our troubles. Heroes are not the people who look, act, and think perfectly. They are not flawless; they are not always right. That would not be a hero, that would be an imagined idol.  Heroes are people who fall but do not stay down. Heroes are people who make mistakes but learn from them. Heroes are real people, with real weaknesses, who, by way of trial and error, recovery and resolve, become stronger and wiser, and in turn, they help others to find the way through the troubles and trials of life. This is what makes Abraham a true hero of the faith!

The Journey Begins, or Resumes, everyone of us needs one of those things to be true about our life. Maybe today is the day you will decide to leave the old life behind, the worldly life, the soul vexing life. Or maybe, for some of us, today is the day we are done with settling for partial obedience and we are going to grab what God gave us, and move forward in God's call, totally surrendered to the life he has intended for us. Either way, one word that describes it is Leaving!

The greatest cost of the world on our lives, is that it takes us from the love of the Father! When we are pursuing the godless systems, the lusts and pride of socially organized flesh, we are not loving our Father as we should and could. Is there a greater transgression than this?  And so, we need to consider this Babel of the world and what towers of godlessness may be standing in our life and really commit to asking God to bring them down so that we, like Abram, can find ourselves on the journey of the pilgrim life with God.

We do not naturally love those that are not family and friends. We tend to shy away from loving the unlovely and sinful, but those are the exact people Jesus has called us to love. In this message, Missionary Dwight Tomlinson offers four words to show how Christians can have a heart for the world: Look Pray Give Go

The church plays a vital, yet often overlooked, role in the growth and development of the believer. We have relegated this vital institution as little more than a convenient gathering and social activity. But what does edifying truly look like? How are we, each day, to allow others to play a role in our spiritual development, as well as intentionally enter into the same work in others?