Advertise on podcast: Grace Baptist Church

God welcomes you into His family. The church is a family of brothers and sisters adopted into God's glorious home. As we improve our family relationships, we improve as a church family. As we grow into healthy husbands and wives, children and parents, we model a healthy family to the world around us.

When satan leads the charge to assassinate our character before the throne of God, he has quite a bit of ammunition. Each day we do or think things, or fail to do or think things, that could be brought against us. And yet God's grace and mercy continue to pour out still, and the accuser of the brethren has no way to condemn us. Why? What do we have before the Lord? We have a great High Priest! He is our Advocate, our Attorney Who pleads our case. He justifies us. Let us join in praise for a God Who fully pardons!

God gives to us freely and abundantly. In fact, all things work together for good, because ... God gives all things. All things that we have are given to us from God's gracious, omnipotent, caring hand. What is the proof of that? We find that so clearly expounded in the third question in our Romans 8 list of Glorious Gospel questions.

As we move on to our second glorious Gospel question of grace. God is for us… Then who can be against us?! These questions become affirmations of confidence before the Lord. So, who is against you? Is God for you? Have you joined His side? You cannot fight against God. Join His winning side, and nothing can be against you!

When we consider all that God has given us in Christ, we cannot doubt that He would withhold from us anything that we need. He knows best and gives best. Romans 8 unpacks the Gospel's benefits for us in seven rhetorical questions that affirm God's great love in Christ. This Sunday we'll begin with the first of these seven questions. Be sure to come this Sunday and praise the Lord for His great love for us as demonstrated in the Gospel.

Our meeting together for worship is an essential part of Christianity. The Bible illustrates this in many ways. One of the primary ones is that we are a temple of stones. We'll examine this imagery tomorrow from the letter of Peter to the scattered abroad saints.

When you haven't seen someone who you love for so long and you finally are able to meet again it's such a sweet experience! We all await a meeting with Someone Who has given everything for us. We will meet Him in person, face to face, when we die. But it may be that we will meet Him while living when He comes again to receive us to Himself. What an amazing experience that will be! What effect should this truth have on us? Jesus shares this truth in several parables. We'll look at one final parable this Sunday in our series on: Looking unto Jesus - - this parable is exactly that. What happens when look at Jesus. Are you ready? How can you be ready? Let us praise the Lord for His coming and dive into this parable through the Preaching of God's Word. See you there!

In Matthew 13:44–46, Jesus tells two short parables about the kindomg of heaven- a hidden treasure and a pearl of great value. One man discovers the treasure unexpectedly; the other spends his time searching for something valuable. Yet when each recognizes what he has found, both respond by giving up everything to possess it. Let us consider what the kingdom of heaven is, its value, and the response required from us.

Jesus tells the Parable of the Dinner Guests in during His final days in Jerusalem to warn Israel's religious leaders that although God's kingdom had been offered to them through the Messiah, their rejection of the Son would bring judgment, while God's gracious invitation would extend to the nations and that merely accepting the invitation outwardly is not enough; one must truly belong to Christ.

As our Lord gave His parable on the different soils, representing the conditions of the human heart, He explained how God's Word affects and even changes His hearers. This Sunday we will praise the Lord for His Word that gives Spiritual Life to hearers. We will also take some time to consider the four different reactions the Word of God produces in its hearers as we look at Jesus' Parable of the Soils. Let us ask the Lord for grace to have good soil in our hearts and the hearts of everyone who hears His Word.

As we move on from scenes from Jesus's life to stories Jesus told. One primary parable comes at the end of the lengthy Sermon on the Mount where Jesus portrays His teaching as the only solid foundation on which to build our lives. Our worship service will praise the Lord for His Words being our firm foundation. Let's come ready to hear His challenge and consider this truth carefully. Are you building your life on HIs solid foundation?

In our series so far, we've learned how Christ is all-knowing and is all-powerful, so He is able to step into any situation that is needed. But does He care enough to step in? Power and knowledge are no guarantee of help. But does He care? YES indeed! We'll look at another scene of Jesus's life and ministry. This one will show us that He does care. And that His care is extended to the least of these–those that others would reject or overlook; Jesus is there ready to help and bless. So let us come to Him with all our needs, all our desires and all our needs He will sustain and help us. Look unto Jesus today!

"Looking unto Jesus" -- As we consider the amazing scenes of Jesus's life, the most important is that of the cross and resurrection. In our mini-series on the life of Jesus, I thought this Sunday would be an appropriate time to look at the scene of the cross because it's the same Sunday we are celebrating the Lord's Table. As Jesus died on the cross, He was "bearing our shame." This is the aspect we will delve into as we consider Christ condemned to make us free. He bore shame and reproach before man so that we might never bear shame or reproach before the Father.

The apparent infiniteness of how immense, and yet microscopically intricate the universe is can heighten our sense of insignificance. "Who notices my existence anyway!?" And yet, God, Who made all that is in Christ sees us individually and knows all there is to know about us. This is a comforting truth! We'll dive into this truth from John 1 as we continue the series -- "Looking Unto Jesus."

Jesus has all power! The storms of life threaten to topple our existence. The storms may be external or they may be internal. But in all these circumstances, we can trust our Lord Jesus Who calms our storms. He is all-powerful, and His command puts them to rest. Let us praise the Lord for His power over the storms of life and His power over all things.