First Baptist Church Washington Illinois

Talk is cheap! Making a covenant commitment is not just talk. In this message we will see 5 aspects of Making a covenant commitment and then next week we will look a little deeper into some of the specifics of the covenant, but today 5 aspects of the covenant and my prayer is that as we look at this, we can use it to reflect on our own lives.

In this section, we find that the Jews are pleading with God for mercy in their situation. Up until this point, there had been a great deal of progress. The walls of Jerusalem had been rebuilt, and the city repopulated. However, the city itself still remained in ruins, and they still had enemies all around them. Therefore the people fo God cry out to God for the same mercy He showed their forefathers.

As we continue to read this prayer in Nehemiah 9, we understand it is full of rich instruction about who God is, who we are, and how God has worked on behalf of His people, which should lead us to praise. Now what we will see in these verses is that Israel is prone to sin, but God is rich in mercy, and we will see this over and over again.

A few weeks ago, I had said that this section of Nehemiah is the longest prayer recorded in Scripture, and it is recounting the history of Israel as a nation. The prayer begins with the creation and then goes all the way through their captivity, and as we read this, I trust you could see that over and over again, it was declaring how great God is. In fact, I believe that we will see that God is to be exalted for who He is, for His plan, for His power, and for His provision. That God is indeed great and greatly to be praised.

The story of the birth of Jesus is so much more than a nice story that makes people feel good. It is in fat the most crucial news that anyone one the face of the earth could ever hear. The Bible is clear that all have sinned, all are apart from Christ and all are under God’s condemnation making the incarnation supremely vital. Listen in to this message to find out why.

So this section Nehemiah gives us an idea of what happened when revival, or as we talked about last week, Biblical Renewal comes. The people have received the Word of God, and where the word is received and honored, it will bear fruit. Their hearts have been saturated with God's Word, and it has accomplished a great work in their lives. So we see in these verses that which is acceptable worship and that God is indeed worthy of worship.

Nehemiah 8 is a focus on God’s Word. The wall was completed in chapter six. In chapter seven, provision is made for security, and we see the perseverance of the people. Things are looking pretty good at this point. However, something important is missing because there is no spiritual vitality; the people needed renewal. So what we will see is six things focusing on God's Word. We will see a request for God's Word, a reading of it, a reverence for it, a response to it, a reaction to it, and finally, the requirement of it.

Chapter 7 starts with three verses describing the precautions that Nehemiah took to guard the city against attack, and that wraps up the first half of the book. Verses 4-73 look forward to the reforms of the second half of the book by showing how Nehemiah went about repopulating the city. The entirety of the chapter is lesson in perseverance with people.

So far, Nehemiah in the rebuilding of this wall has had to stand up to the violent threats of the enemy in chapter 5. Then in chapter 5, he had to deal with internal conflict between the wealthy Jews and the poor Jews. He has been tested as a leader. The wall is almost done, and the breaches have been repaired, the wall is complete except for the door in the gates. The enemy does not give up, and here in chapter 6, he hits again with four types of opposition: intrigue, innuendo, intimidation, and infiltration. In the first three, Satan moves, and Nehemiah responds, and the last one Nehemiah’s moves, and Satan responds, so let's learn how to triumph over opposition.

Why do we have money? What do we do with our money and can it be used to bring God glory? In this message, we will see how many of the Jews were not bringing God glory with their finances and how that changed.

As a follower of Christ, our resolve will be continually tested. In this passage of scripture, we will notice that progress is not made without being ready for battle. Do you understand that along with building God’s kingdom there is a battle? What does it mean to trust in the Sovereignty of God in the midst of the battle? Listen to today’s message to find out.

We live in discouraging times. What are we to do when we find ourselves discouraged? How can we overcome discouragement and what sort of things do we need to look for when it comes to the cause of discouragement. In today’s message, we will learn about discouragement and how to overcome it.

In Nehemiah 4:1-9 we see that Nehemiah faces some pretty fierce opposition. In this message,​ we will focus in on that opposition and how Nehemiahresponded​d to it.

Before any church can be successful, the people must realize and understand that God’s work is for everyone. In this message, we will first see the characteristics of the people and we will see how they came together to build the wall. No matter how poor your assessment of your gifting is you can be used but the Lord to accomplish so much.

There are times that we think we know more than God. The Scripture provides the believer with life-giving counsel and joy. In Today’s message Pastor, Ben unpacks what it looks like to go the Scriptures which is the source of this life-giving​ counsel and joy.

Nehemiah was preparing for the Lord’s work. Two questions to ask of yourself Can God trust me? And secondly, am I faithful? These are important qquestionsto ask when preparing for the Lord’s work.

How does the providence of God intersect with our lives and what does it all mean? Does prayer really change anything? These questions and more are answered in today’s message.

This is our final message in our Who's Your One series. In this message we look at the disciple Andrew and how thought he is seemingly insignificant the Lord uses him with great significance. Do we pass others by that we think are insignificant? Who are you sharing the gospel with?

Often times as Christians we will say that we believe in a literal hell but we will live in such a way that says we down really believe it. How should our view of hell motivate us towards evangelism? Is hell real and what does the Bible teach us about it?

In this message we will focus on what one can do. One invitation to church, one message of hope, one neighbor, one coworker, one friend. Here is my question, can you name one person who has come to Christ through your invitation or witness? May we focus in on the one because we know that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation according to Romans 1:16. The apostle Paul in that same passage, indicated he was not ashamed of the gospel.

Every one of us should be on mission to bring our friends to Jesus. We will encoutner obstacles but we must trust in the power of Christ to do only what he can do. May we do all we can to see the lost won to Christ.

It is impossible to be a Christian and not be a disciple. The term disciple is very clear it makes it clear what you become when you follower Jesus, and in Matthew 4 we have Jesus choosing the first disciples, and I think we see what it means to be a Christian.

Is following Christ worth it? Is our life about what we accumulate or is it about Christ? Will you focus on the eternal that can be enjoyed forever?

Today Dr. Joe Gardner talks about saving and sustaing grace. Do you know this grace?

This book deals with Godly relationships, I would like us to see some principles for Godly relationship this morning specifically in how Paul relates to Philemon. This is not some sort of comprehensive list, but I think they are some things that we would do well to learn and put into practice in our church life for the glory of God and the furtherance of the gospel. So let's look at some of these principles for Godly relationships.

In this message we will see how God transforms us through the Gospel He transforms our character, our connection with others, and our connection with Him.

In this message we go back over the 9 marks of a healthy church. We look at all of the messages in the healthy church series today in the first message we had the introduction, then we spoke about expositional preaching then biblical theology, the gospel, conversion, evangelism, memberships, discipline, discipleship and growth, deacons, and ended with elders.

So today we are going first to see the qualifications for church leadership, then we will see the Charismatic nature of Church leadership, the Christlikeness of Church leadership. Remember that we are using the book 9 Marks of a healthy church by Mark Dever for this series and these points all come out of that book.

Christianity has always recognized the need for authority in society, in the home and also in the church. We are going to talk about that a little bit today, So what we are going to look at is a congregational context, and then we will look at the qualifications of a deacon, to help us to be able to identify what a deacon is. Finally, we will see the responsibilities of a deacon Now before we go any further, I believe it is essential that we understand that scripture seems to make it very clear that there are two offices within a church and they are deacons and elders and both of those offices are plural.

A healthy church is characterized by having members who are seriously concerned with their spiritual growth. In a healthy church, people actually want to get better at following Jesus. So today we are going to look at some questions 1. What does the Bible say about spiritual growth? 2. How do we spiritually grow as a church and individually? 3. Is it spiritual growth really all that important? 4. What if we don't grow?

Church discipline gets to the heart of the question. Are we to live as Christians on our own? Do our obligation to one another only involve encouraging one another positively? Or do they include a responsibility to speak honestly to each other's faults, shortcomings, departures from Scripture or specific sins? Does our responsibilities before God ever include making such matters public? So as we have done previously, we are going to look at some questions this morning. Is all church discipline negative, what is it, What does the Bible say about it, how have past Christians handled it, would our Church ever do such a thing, why we should practice it, and what happens if we refuse.

Continuing our study on what is a healthy church today we look at church membership​. The average SBC church has an inflated membership roster one study showed the typical Southern Baptist Church has 176 members, 69 of whom are present at the typical Sunday morning worship service. In this message, we will answer three questions that I hope will help us rethink church membership. 1. What is a church? 2. Why join a church? 3. What does membership entail?

This morning I want us to consider how it is that we are to tell others this great message that has changed us. How do we share the gospel? How do we evangelize? To do so, we are going to consider 4 questions. 1. What is Evangelism? 2. Who should evangelize? 3. Why shoe we evangelize? 4. How should we evangelize?

So is real and lasting change even possible? What does the Bible say about real, lasting personal change? Today we want to see the change that takes place in conversion. Because a Biblical understanding of conversion is one characteristic of a healthy church. So today we are going to ask five questions about conversion to help us better understand it.

Today we continue our study looking at a healthy church. The focus of this message is The Gospel. The hope of the gospel is the hope of knowing the glory of God in the face of Christ. It is the hope of seeing him clearly and knowing him fully. It is the hope of becoming like Christ as we see him as he is. So what is this good news that we speak of what is this gospel message? Is it a message that God is love? Or a message that we are all okay or a message that Jesus is my friend, or is it a message that I need to try harder to live right what is the good news?

Last week we looked at expositional preaching. Our concern, however, is not only with how we are taught but more importantly, what we are taught. We should want pastors who preach from God's Word, with that said we should carefully listen to what the Pastor says and determine whether what he says is according to the Word of God. We don't need preachers that just make a claim to preach from the Word; we need pastors whose sermons are clearly in line with what the Word of God actually teaches.

An expositional preacher seeks to have his congregation fed by the entirety of God's word, therefore, making for a healthy congregation. The expositional preacher's authority begins and ends with Scripture. When a preacher speaks, he is called to have the authority to speak fromGod as long as they are speaking God's words.

This message addresses two main things. First, what are you looking for? Second what is a healthy church and under what is a healthy church we will look at our Christianity, what a church is and is not, what every church should aspire to be and how it is we can display the character of God.

Luke's gospel has been building to this one final miracle. Nothing that has happened before the resurrection has any meaning if Christ did not rise from the grave. If Christ did not rise from the grave then his virgin birth is meaningless, the miracles he performed are meaningless, his teachings are meaningless, and even his crucifixion would be meaningless if Christ remains dead we are in a pitiful state. Everything in this gospel hangs on this final chapter.

This passage of scripture reveals to us something that many do not know, and that is true and lasting peace. We see a peace that the world cannot give nor take away a peace that is offered by God that comes only through the person and work of Jesus Christ and the question for us to answer is, do we want that peace?

The cross calls, redeems, and assures. It calls to a different faith, redeems despite our past, assures victory over the enemy. Listen is as Eric preaches on Reclaiming the power of the cross.

We come to this section in Luke's Gospel when Jesus faces his capture and arrest. The authorities place him on trial, which results in his conviction and later his crucifixion. There are three scenes I want us to see in this passage today, and there are some lesson I trust we will learn

We have a total of 5 scenes focused around the betrayal of Jesus in the text. First, we have Jesus in the Garden praying before he is betrayed, then we see the deception begins as Judas betrays him with a kiss, then we have Peter betraying him with his denial three times, then we have the soldiers mocking and beating him, and finally we have the priest and the scribes condemning him. Everyone around Jesus rejects him.

On that same day, God gives Haggai a message directly to Zerubabbel. Now, remember what I had said before, the first and third messages were messages of rebuke the second and fourth are messages of encouragement. To Zerubbabel and to all of God's servants who may be discouraged God has a message for us

What the Lord makes clear is that he doesn't desire fancy buildings and animal sacrifices if the hearts of his worshipers are not righteous before him. So Haggai delivers a message to urge the people not only to keep working on the temple but also to do it from their hearts better right before God. We must understand that outward religion is never enough. God always looks at the heart.

Haggai delivers his second message to the people, and it is a message of God's encouragement and His encouragement id for them to persevere in the work of the temple. What we see here is that God's sovereignty brings encouragement to discouraged people.

We must refuse to put our desires above God's house. The Minor Prophets commentary puts it like this “In short, Haggai is saying, ‘Give God the supreme place in your life.’” and Jesus said to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you (Mt. 6:33) That is why I titled this first message build God's house first.

We are standing between the living and the dead what will we do?

In the Old Testament God had destroyed the earth and all of human and animal life except those who were on the Ark. It was a new beginning for the human race which was judged and destroyed because of its corruption. In our text today we notice one of the very first things God did with Noah is affirming the sanctity of human life. God is establishing the foundation in how we are to view human life right from the start before the earth is repopulated with humanity. If God proclaims the sanctity of human life, then we are to do the same.

FBC exists to glorify Jesus Christ by calling people to Know Him, Grow in Him, and to Show Him to others. How can we see the mission happen? “Ask in Jesus Name.” What does it mean to ask in Jesus name? Ultimately, it means we are asking in the character and with the approval of Jesus. We are asking for the very things Jesus would ask for. So then we ask ourselves what would Jesus as for, and if we answer that question then we know what we should also ask for? Again we have the Scriptures to guide us let’s look at several things we know meet this criteria of asking for what Jesus would ask for...