Category Archives: Sunday Sermons

Our Church Covenant

In the front of our church's constitution booklet, you will find a page entitled "Church Covenant". If you do happen to take the time to start reading it, you might be tempted to quit after the first paragraph. It is written in an early 20th century style and starts out a little bit like a…

What Makes Our Church Special Part 2

In the book of Revelation, Jesus dictates letters to seven different churches. It is clear that even back then churches were different, and some were clearly better than others. That is true as well today, and should make us wonder, what can we do to make sure we would get a good letter, if Jesus…

What Makes Our Church Special?

In our part of America, there are a lot of churches to choose from. Even when you narrow your choices down by denomination, you may still find two or more options driving distance. What makes our church special? What sets First Baptist Church of Elimsport apart? First, it is important to realize that we are…

Why Join a Church?

We have looked at the question, "Why come to Church?", but it is important to go one step further and consider the question "Why Join a Church?". Coming to church is visiting, joining a church is becoming an active participant. This message will dig into the benefits and obligations and talk about why God would…

How to Judge a Pastor

Today is a little awkward as I will be talking about myself and my role as pastor. Sometime in the future, however, First Baptist of Elimsport will need to find a new pastor. Whether it's because I retire, move, die, or get the boot, I’ll need to be replaced someday. You may not be part…

Why Does the Church Meet on Sunday?

I can remember in 1989, when I started working at a local grocery store, we were closed on Sundays. In fact, apart from the mall, gas stations, and restaurants, most other businesses were closed on Sunday. My manager at that time told me that when he was a kid, you couldn't even find gas stations…

The Mission of the Church

This third installment of our series on the local church focuses on one of the most important questions we should be asking: "What is the Mission of the Church?" We have talked about the origin of the church, the formation and activity of the early church, now we need to find out, what is the…

Learning From the Early Church

In our first message in this series on the local church, we looked at the fact that the church was God's idea, it is not manmade. While man has produced many forms of church that may be very different than what God intended, make no mistake, God is the one who created and established the…

The Origin of the Local Church

How important is the church? I have been a pastor for over 25 years and I have been a follower of Jesus for 45. If I have not learned anything else in all my experience, I have learned that the most important elements of the Christian life are time with God in prayer, time with…

The Hope of All People

It says in Proverbs 13:12 that "Hope deferred makes the heart sick". Have you ever experienced that, where you had high hopes, only to have the dashed at the last minute? Maybe you have had this happen just this Christmas season. It really does drain our souls and make us feel empty, like when we…