God has designated us to be in community with one another. As Americans, we are taught be be independent, but the Bible has called us to be one. We can’t do anything individually as powerfully as we can collectively. We know when someone begins leaving a church they isolate and rather than choose to surround themselves with strong spiritual people, they might surround themselves with those that are bitter and angry like them.

We are each individual masterpieces. We are made in the image of God. God has the desire for each of us to be greater by being more different and individual than being the same. Too much of the time, people want to associate with people that are the same of them. We like to have our individualism in groups by associating with others that like the same things that we identify with our own uniqueness.

We are introducing a new series called One of a Kind. God created us as a One of Kind. We are also called to live as one. We need to explore the American culture of self-sufficiency. In Christianity, it’s the exact opposite. God created you to need others and to not be alone. God says it’s not good for man to be alone, but we are taught from an early age to fend for ourselves in American culture. Everything is backwards. Those that can’t go it alone are seen as less capable, but God made us to live in a community of people.

On this special Resurrection Sunday, we begin with two baptisms including the sharing of their faith in coming to the Lord. Christopher Staser and Jacqueline Divietro were already saved and are now being baptized as a public profession of their faith and the beginning of their Christian ministry. The name Faith Baptist Church represents the idea that it’s by faith first that we are saved and then we are baptized.

How many have ever been to a cemetery where there are guards there to prevent the deceased from getting out? They placed the soldier there so the disciples don’t steal the body either. How would he have the power to do that? Jesus had already raised people from the dead—he had a history of doing that. But to make sure, we are going to guard a dead man’s body. Today we worship a risen savior, which is unique in all the world. The tomb is empty and he now sits at the right hand of God!

This is the third message in the series, Love Reigns. God is love, but let’s define love. Is the love you have for your wife or husband the same as the love God has for you? Or your love of ice cream? Or the love of your passions, like airplanes? God’s love is a different love. So if we are told to love one another, is that possible outside of God? Man’s love is usually a conditional love. If we are loved, we love back. In our messed up mind-set we might feel that God needs us. Why then do we exist? What’s the point of the Christian life if God doesn’t need us? God in scripture has given us a lens to look through, but it’s only good if we use it.

There’s a lot of different abilities we have and it’s the pastor’s job to remind you of that and recognize them and find ways to build those abilities and to put those into action. The goal of service is to edify Christ. The pastors need to remind members like you that you play a vital role. We need to recognize that we have a vital role in the church, the young and the old. Everyone has a role. We all need to recognize the we need each other and need to work together. We need to blend and work together. There’s no stage as a church member where you are relegated to play no role, even if you’re older and younger people have taken on your old roles.

Today we are going to talk about how love reigns over your past. If you’re a believer, Jesus Christ has set you free of your past. You are defined today by one person and one person only: Jesus Christ. Because of the love that God demonstrated for us that while we were sinners, he died for us, we are not longer defined by what we were in our past.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

—2 Corinthians Chapter 5:17-21

I want to talk about the future because sometimes when we have fear, it’s oftentimes about the unknown. Before we were saved and after we were saved, we could see Christ in our lives before and after. We could see how he used our history. We could see how he was there in our timeline. If God is sovereign, then he’s in control. What are the odds that if he’s been faithful in the past he will be faithful in the future? You’ve probably heard much about fear in the past week. We’ve been bombarded by fear in the media and culture so let’s deal with this fear thing.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

—Matthew 6: 25-27

This is the forth and final sermon of the Fear Not Series. We have learned many things, but one is that we can be victorious over fear. My goal through this series is to share what the Bible says about anxiety and worry and being fearful. 

There’s a lot of fear-mongering in our world today from our governments to our media. On the flip side of victory, we get defeated in these areas. We get discouraged. What’s the core of discouragement? Fear! 

Remember how you used to predict the future when you were a kid? Do you remember the Magic 8 Ball? So much of our lives are like a Magic 8 Ball! Asking and making different decisions that the Magic 8 Ball helped in making our decisions. We used it to take away worry and anxiety because it gave us an answer since we don’t know the future. But the good news is that we have someone with us who does know the future. We have an eternal God that’s with us, all the way to the very end of our life. I’m glad I don’t know when my final week of life will be, but God knows.

This is the third week on the Fear Not Series. We’ve learned that there’s healthy fears and unhealthy fears. We’ve learned that all fear belongs in the hands of God. God always cares. Fear and worry and doubt belong with God, not with us. Today we are going to focus on today. Wouldn’t it be nice to find a passage where Jesus speaks about today?

Matthew 6:34: “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

We need to be present to the cares of the day, today. Not tomorrow or of the future. I find this extremely freeing. If we have to live by faith and not by fear, Jesus is going to lead for us. Paul was a wonderful example for us of just how much he lived by this principle.

We’ve been talking about fear. Do we believe that God is greater than our anxiety and fear. Do we believe that God can actually get rid of your fear and anxiety. If so, where does the Bible talk about this? The whole chapter of Philippians 4 address this topic. We will focus on verses 6 and 7. We are taught in verse 4 to ‘rejoice in the Lord always’ no matter what situation.

Philippians 4- 7: 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.