Bbc Sermons

It’s no fun coming off the mountaintop—summer’s end is an annual reminder of that.  But perhaps there’s a reason we can’t stay in the euphoria of mountaintop experiences.  To uncover that reason, today’s message involves a fantastical tale that flies thru the imagination in an effort to deliver a cool burst of truth to the heart.

Following Jesus doesn’t mean we won’t get angry, that at times we won’t grow frustrated with life and those who walk it with us.  Following Jesus does mean, however, that we have an example of how to handle our feelings when life doesn’t go our way.  In this sermon, gifted Campbell Divinity School student Colin Kroll compares the story of Absalom’s murder by Joab with the instructions Paul gives in Ephesians about handling powerful emotions like anger.

It can be tempting to think of the “high, holy” task of Communion as just another item to be checked off our church to-do lists.  But when he instituted the ordinance, Jesus intended for it to be so much more. Fortunately, the apostle Paul gives us a to-do list of his own to help guard us against rushing through the Lord’s Supper in a hurried and disjointed manner.

We know that Jesus is God.  But we often forget the other essential truth of the Incarnation—that Jesus was a person, too.  To help us reconnect to this truth, which is central to our Bible School theme for 2015, we invited one of Jesus’ childhood best friends to come and speak to beauty of Jesus’ humanity and why it’s important for our belief in him today.

The Knoxville, TN missionaries are back!  Hear about their trip through various testimonies offered by those who participated in a week of service.

  Listen to BBC’s former interim pastor, Charles Royal, as he offers a challenging message on Christian faith.

Just because the separation of church and state can be a pretty touchy subject doesn’t mean it has to be!  In fact, it’s an issue in which Baptists can take great pride, as many of our denomination’s founders were instrumental in developing the belief that the government and the church each function best while operating from separately from one another.

No words spoken on this Sunday could be more important than those which expressed our common pain for the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.  Thus, today we do not post a sermon; all we can do is offer a prayer.

Jesus tells us to celebrate Communion “in remembrance” of him.  But what does that mean?  How can a piece of bread and a small cup of juice prompt us to remember Christ?  And, why in the world is it necessary that we do it with one another?

Churches are diverse places, filled with people at many different points along life’s journey—what is it that brings us together?  Perhaps we find our answer in the final act that brought Jesus together with his diverse group of friends: the bread and the cup.

Although “speaking your language” is essential for community in the body of Christ, it is not all we must do.  For what good is it to have people speaking their languages if no one is there to listen?  Hence, our focus this week is not so much on putting words to our own spiritual journeys, but on listening to others as they put words on theirs.

The local church has potential to be one of the most intimate communities to which a person can belong—it can be rich, fruitful, and life-giving.  Nonetheless, for many Christians, “church” is just a place where you go.  How can we make the most of the opportunity we have to commune with those who share faith in Christ with us?  Perhaps our first step is simply to speak.

Hear sentence testimonies from our youth group, plus a message from high school senior Luke Tart, all capped off by the baptism of one of our youth group’s newest members, Ms. Emi Poole.

  What does motherly love look like?  Three stories—one from the Bible, one from American history, and one from God’s own heart—might give us a better idea.

  We often forget that Jesus began his preaching way back when he was still a boy.  Couple this truth with the fact that our Lord saw something special about a child-like faith, and we ought to be challenged to listen up the next time the little ones around us start “preaching.” 

  Faith has a hard time surviving if it’s only on the surface of our lives.  But these days we’re so busy that a little spot on the surface is often all we have to give God.  Nonetheless, if we want a faith that lasts, we need to take time and rest, to let God sink in like paint soaking into a wall, so that our resultant faith isn’t something superficial, but instead something that’s worked deep into the fibers of who we are.

  “Do you have anything to eat?”  According to Luke, that’s the last question that Jesus, the great master of probing interrogations, asked his disciples.  Could it be that in this seemingly standard, “ho-hum” question we are challenged to expand our assumptions of God’s presence, not just within the “highlight” moments of our lives, but during the boring normality of our everyday existence?

  Sometimes we get faith backwards.  In this sermon, guest preacher Rev. David Little challenges us to have faith that starts with believing, then enjoy having our eyes opened to the many ways that God is at work around us.

  It’s been said that opposites attract, and perhaps nowhere is that more true than in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ resurrection.  According to Matthew, the women who found Jesus’ tomb vacant left running “with fear and great joy.”  Could it be that, in the fusion of these two seemingly opposite emotions, we find the seeds from which faith can be born?

  People brought many things to Jesus.  They brought their needs, their burdens, their concerns—but they also brought their indignation.  Repeatedly, especially at the end of his life, Jesus encountered the indignance of other people.  The way he handled it offers us a challenging example for how we can best respond to the heightened emotions of others.