First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

By FPC BRReligion & Spirituality
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First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge episodes

  • Cultivating Resistant, Resilient and Renovative Christian Community

    These are the pedals on Paul’s bike of discipleship. God works as we work. We work as God works. Pedal 1: God is at work in you, to make you willing and able to serve him. So, press down on that pedal! Push into Christ by your faith. That will raise up Pedal 2: Work out own your salvation. Is Paul saying we can save ourselves? Of course not. But once God has been at work in us, we can respond with working out our salvation in vibrant mission to the world. God works, so we can work. As we work--as we worship, love, serve and extend ourselves--God works in us even more. So the bike of discipleship rolls.

    27 min
  • What Graduating Seniors Ask

    It’s crucial to learn to say your own Christian worldview clearly and in many different ways. And it’s all crucial to ask to listen to other worldviews. Ask the worldview questions: What do you feel is the purpose of human existence? What do you think went most wrong with the world? What do you think can be done about it? Listen. Really listen. And then ask if you can briefly share how you see the world.

    25 min
  • Galatians 3: 23-4: 7
    • The law acted as prison warden and guardian until Christ came, but now that faith has come, we move from living under the law, to living by faith in Christ.
    • God sent his Son “to redeem those under the law;” to free us. He had to share in the same condition (“born of a woman, born under the law”) of those he came to rescue!
    • God also sent his Son so that "we might receive adoption into sonship.” He came to turn us from slaves into sons!
    • In justification, God acts as the judge, who declares us “not guilty” – it’s a legal, once and for all pronouncement. In adoption, God acts as our Father, who gets off the judgment seat, comes down to where you are, leans into to you and says, “I love you, my beloved child. Come home with me.” David Platt
    • God is a lot of things to ALL of humanity, regardless of whether or not you’re “in Christ." He’s Creator of all, Ruler of all, and Judge of all, BUT… He is only Father to those in Christ Jesus. Only his sons and daughters have the privilege of calling him “Father.” Phil Ryken
    • As a child of God, we have certain privileges that others don’t:
    • We are united to Christ himself (Hebrews 2:10-12).
    • We are united to the body of Christ. Our ethnic and social distinctions continue to exist, but they no longer divide us because we are all ONE in Christ Jesus. Everyone who belongs to God belongs to everyone else who belongs to God. Because our relationship to one another is based entirely on our relationship in Christ, we have a bond with the family of faith that transcends any physical or cultural differences we may have.
    • We are heirs of the Kingdom (Romans 8: 17).
    • We experience intimacy with the Father. God sent his Son in order that we may be legally and completely adopted into sonship. God sent his Spirit so that we can experience our sonship with him more fully. In other words, the adoption that was accomplished by the Son is applied by the Spirit.
    Questions for reflection:
    • How does your adoption impact the way you view other believers? Or the way you view the “church”?
    • When do you see yourself more as a slave, or living as a slave, instead of daughter who has the permission to cry out to her Father who loves her?
    55 min
  • Galatians 3
    • “We are not only justified by faith in Christ, we are also sanctified by faith in Christ. We never leave the gospel behind.” Tim Keller
    • The way the Spirit entered the Galatians' lives is the same way the Spirit advanced their lives. This is true for us!
    • Paul was so wise to use Abraham as an example. “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness” (Genesis 15: 6). It wasn’t his obedience, it wasn’t the sign of circumcision, or anything else… God credit Abraham righteous because of his FAITH alone.
    • So then why did God give the Law of Moses 430 years later? Doesn’t that just tell us that God is adding to the promise he gave Abraham? Certainly not! says Paul. These two covenants did not contradict each other; they complimented each other. In both covenants, the promise of God’s blessing comes by grace through faith and is not earned. And in both covenants, the faith which saves taps into God’s power in such a way that obedience results.
    • “The law increases transgressions and shuts people up under sin, not because it requires imperfect people to merit God’s favor, but because it requires proud and independent people to humble themselves and depend on God’s transforming mercy.” John Piper
    • “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.’” (verse 13). What are the implications of this verse? We need a Savior!
    • Reflection questions: How are we tempted to live out our faith outside of God’s gospel of grace? What sneaky ways can the enemy use good works as a way to bind us to legalism?
    1 hr 8 min
  • Body Life

    The spirituality of our interconnectedness in Christ directs us to work out its practicality. We live our individual distinctiveness in concord with other believers. Paul writes with piercingly simple profundity. A body has many parts. Each one is needed. A body won’t work if somehow, absurdly, the hand starts complaining it wants to be an eye. Or if the nose disdains the feet that carry the body. Within our shared life in Christ, we need each other’s unique contributions, and even each others’ different, sometimes difficult backgrounds.

    24 min

About First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

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First Presbyterian Church Baton Rouge is a church passionately committed to Christ Jesus our Lord and ardently engaged in studying the Scriptures. We love reaching out to our city and world with the…