Posts by Michael Nelson (Page 2)

Weekly Update – September 26th, 2024 Within the last week, I became aware of two ministry leaders who fell into “ministry disqualifying” sins.  One was very public, and his ministry is well known around the world.  The other was local and served in a supporting role at a church just south of us.  I won’t list the sins, nor will I give you the names, though you could likely figure it out. Instead, I want to process with you how…

Weekly Update – September 19th, 2024 As a Baptist church, one of our distinctives is that we are autonomous. Essentially what that means is that we govern ourselves and do not take directives from anybody outside of our own assembly. In other words, we are independent.  We see this principle of autonomy first come up in Matthew 18:16 when Jesus tells the church to remove an unrepentant person from their midst.  The call here is not to go to a…

Weekly Update – September 12th, 2024 The topic of abortion seems to have grown even more contentious than normal over the last several months.  With the overturning of Roe v. Wade on June 24, 2022, our political cycle has jumped headlong into the perceived positives and negatives of this outcome as each presidential candidate seeks to make use of this decision to their own advantage.  Now, my point here is not to highlight the position of each political party, but…

Weekly Update – September 5th, 2024 Last week, in our series through the gospel of Luke, we came to Luke 1:26-38 with the announcement of Jesus.  With the way being prepared for the Messiah, through the miraculous birth of John being announced (Luke 1:5-25), it only then follows that the birth of Jesus would be announced next.  There are many unique factors that go into this announcement, such as who God chose to deliver his Son into the world (Mary),…

Weekly Update – August 29th, 2024 Over the last year, we have been slowly walking through our newly adopted statement on Biblical Sexuality.  There are nine points to this statement.  This week we will look at the final point.  Point one can before found HERE.  Point two, HERE.  Point three, HERE.  Point four, HERE.  Point five, HERE. Point six, HERE. Point seven, HERE.  Point eight, HERE.  Point nine is as follows: Christ Jesus has come into the world to save sinners. Through Christ’s death and resurrection, forgiveness…

Weekly Update – August 22nd, 2024 Last Sunday we began an in-depth study into the gospel of Luke.  I preached through the entirety of the gospel of Mark back in 2015, but I think it is necessary for us to return to the gospels once again and simply soak in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  My hope through this series is that we would not only gain a deeper appreciation for Christ and his work for us,…

Weekly Update – August 15th, 2024 I have said on several occasions that everything we strive to do at First Baptist Church is deliberate.  We are not looking to merely fill your time, nor are we looking for additional meetings to take up nights of your week.  Instead, we want to use the time that we have together as a church to its fullest as we seek to fulfill our mission to proclaim and display the truth of the gospel…

Weekly Update – August 8th, 2024 On Sunday morning for the last two weeks, we have been talking about evangelism.  Two weeks ago, we saw the apostle Paul’s desire for his fellow countrymen to be saved (Rom. 10:1). This desire flows out of the agony that he has in his heart because of their separation from God (Rom. 9:3).  Though they have a zeal for God, Paul says that their zeal does not come with a knowledge of the truth…

Weekly Update – August 1st, 2024 During our members’ meeting last Sunday, there was a lot of discussion about what it looks like to remove non-attending members from membership.  Ten years ago, we had 2200 members connected to our church.  Since then, we have removed those who have passed away and those who we are unable to contact.  That amounted to around 1400 members.  Now we are in the process of removing members we have contact information for but who…

Weekly Update – July 25th, 2024 Our summer sermon series in Amos has been one of my favorites this year.  Not because I love to hear of judgment as given by Amos in his short book, but because of the number of men we had communicate it to us as a church.  It is probably no surprise to say that Amos is not the easiest book to understand.  You read about “the cows of Bashan” (4:1), “Sikkuth your king, and…

Weekly Update – July 18th, 2024 On Saturday, July 13th, just before 6:15pm, a shooter at a rally for Donald Trump shot the former president in the ear in an assassination attempt.  There has not been a president injured in an assassination attempt since Ronald Reagan was shot on March 31st, 1981. Therefore, what we witnessed just a few days ago, makes this a rare event in American history.  The next day, when we as a church gathered, we prayed…

Weekly Update – July 11th, 2024 This week, we have had the opportunity to host our annual Vacation Bible School. The theme for this year is, Breaker Rock Beach: God’s Rock Solid Truth in a World of Shifting Sands. Every day children from our church and all over our community have come to learn about truth is found in God and we should therefore follow his plan shown to us through Jesus Christ. Our memory verse for the week is from Romans…