Posts by Michael Nelson

Weekly Update – May 8th, 2025  The Biblical command issued by Jesus throughout the gospels to those who would be his disciples is, “Follow Me.”  We saw this clearly last Sunday in Luke 9:23.  Here Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” Now, every passage in the New Testament in some way or another gives us this command.  As we have seen so far in the…

Weekly Update – May 1st, 2025  Summer is often a great time for ministry, as people are outside, kids are on break and church programs take a different pace.  Though many of us will take vacations, trips or take time to simply relax, the mission of the church continues to press forward.  Therefore, as we are now in the month of May, I want to update you on a couple of key opportunities that will be happening in the life…

Weekly Update – April 24th, 2025  On a regular basis I will have conversations with people who claim to be Christians, but don’t know the gospel message.  One conversation may be a man telling me that he needs to do more in life to please God, like the discussion I had a few weeks ago.  Another might be a man who walks me through an entire system of works that the Catholic Church requires, like the conversation I had a…

Weekly Update – April 17th, 2025  One of the hardest parts about sharing the gospel is actually getting into a “gospel conversation” with an unbeliever.  Now sure, understanding the points of the gospel are key, but unless you are street preaching or going door to door, you will probably never have to worry about your outline or your evangelistic method.  This week, I want to share four helpful tips for generating these “gospel conversations” that might open up for us…

Weekly Update – April 10th, 2025  On Sunday at our mini conference titled, Taking Every Thought Captive, Marshall Adkins gave us a sort of grid to interpret how it is that we can evaluate the popular therapies of our day.  In our culture, it is becoming increasingly common to undergo some sort of therapy.  Many psychologists and psychiatrists will have their own thoughts and methods that they will bring to the table, with the mindset that they can give their…

Weekly Update – April 3rd, 2025  In just a few weeks, we as Christians celebrate the cornerstone of our faith.  As the apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:14, “if Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain.” What this means is that the resurrection does matter.  We can’t simply resort to saying that Christianity is about doing good for others or living a morally pure life. If Christ has not been raised, then he is just like…

Weekly Update – March 27th, 2025  For the most part, I think that I am a pretty good listener.  Maybe some will think differently, but overall, I don’t think there is a lot that I miss.  But there is a difference between listening to something and truly hearing.  The same is true with seeing.  Have you ever looked inside the refrigerator for something that you wanted and not been able to see it, even though it was right in front…

Weekly Update – March 20th, 2025  If you were to ask a group of people to describe the love of God, you would likely get a different definition from every single person.  Our culture would describe the love of God as anything that is accepting of their way of life.  Christians might even have a difficult time trying to describe what it means for God to love.  But listen to how the apostle John describes the love of God in…

Weekly Update – March 12th, 2025  On April 6th, we will have a mini conference at First Baptist Church titled, Taking Every Thought Captive.  Our speaker for the entire morning will be Marshall Adkins.  Marshall has been with us before, but on April 6th, he will take time to specifically address many of the common thoughts of our day, how these thoughts influence us in our relationships with others and what we need to do to counter these thoughts with…

Weekly Update – March 6th, 2025  Every year at First Baptist Church, we participate in what is called, the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering.  The purpose of this offering is to give to missions all across North America.  So while we make a big push towards our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions at Christmas time, so too, we also make a push for stateside missions every spring.  The theme of this year’s offering is “Step Into the Story.”  The…

Weekly Update – February 27th, 2025  Most of us listen to a sermon at least once a week. Others of you may listen to more than one per week. Either way, considering the listening that we may do, the question we should ask ourselves is, “How can I make my listening more beneficial?”  Often we may hear a sermon thinking that it was a great explanation of a certain text or a helpful insight into the character of God, but…

Weekly Update – February 20th, 2025  Last week we looked at what we called, Kingdom Humility, from Luke 6:37-49.  The most popular verse in this section though, is likely verse 37 which says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged.”  Now, this verse isn’t calling us to forego ever passing judgement on anything in life.  Just two verses earlier, Jesus told his followers to “love your enemies” (6:35), and five verses later, Jesus compares good fruit to bad fruit…