Grace Baptist Church

Of course, so much rides on elections. Perhaps we get a little too caught up in the news cycle because of that. So let's learn from God's Word what is our primary responsibility as a Christian citizens. Whether that be citizens of Rome, Argentina, or the United States, the Bible is clear in what God would have us do -first of all- as Christians in a country.

God always completes what He promises. As the Psalmist claims----The Lord will accomplish what concerns me--Your lovingkindness, O Lord, is everlasting--Do not forsake the works of Your hands- -Psalm 138-8-.--We can be thankful that the Lord will accomplish His purposes in us. We do well to wait for Him while -He's still working on us.- He accomplishes all His promises for good for His children.--We trust Him to complete what He begins in us because He is the One Whose Word is reliable. In fact not one Word of His promises will fail. Jesus Himself is fulfillment of that Word. We will praise Him for this as we continue through the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus declares His relationship to this faithful Word -text below-.

Living out the beatitudes will set us apart in so many ways. Our Lord pictures this in two helpful illustrations. We are salt and light in the world. We examine those two pictures in this Sermon.

As we follow Jesus' path, we will find some of the same opposition and hardship that He faced. He not only suffered hard times, He was persecuted to death. If we follow Christ well, we must receive His help, and His encouragements during those times. We will find the this in the worship service and the final beatitude in the Sermon on the Mount.

God gives peace and rest to the soul at storm. Not only does our soul need peace, our society does as well. The concepts of peace, justice, and violence are such a major part of discussions in the political arena, the -outdoor- coffee shop arena, and just about every other arena you can imagine. No doubt many of your social media feeds are stuffed with these topics.--Not only does God give us peace in our soul, He encourages us to make peace with others. Does the Lord's appeal to peace in the Sermon on the Mount give us some idea of a solution to the unrest in our society- I believe it does. -Happy are the peacemakers.- We will continue to delve into the Sermon on the Mount for this timely message from our Lord.

Personal holiness is not a common theme for preaching today, nor is the topic popular in many other public forums for that matter. But it is one that Jesus deals with as He shares the -blessednesses- of kingdom citizens. And it is a condition for seeing God. This Sunday, we will work through this next beatitude, and praise the Lord for his holiness in worship.

The journey toward happiness for the citizens of Jesus' kingdom is paved with mercy. We are in His kingdom by mercy and we make mercy a trait of our own lives. In this sermon we look at the next beatitude from Jesus' sermon by the sea. Blessed are the merciful-

Where do we go after times of destruction- Even destruction so great that it looms over our horizon for 20 years---This is a quiet day down here at the 9-11 memorial. Today marks 19 years since those dreadful attacks that killed 2,977 people. Perhaps you are grieving the loss of a loved one today - or perhaps just remembering someone that you miss.--Perhaps you are facing a different day of destruction in your town today. We see images of many other devastating events today, because of fire, looting, or even the effects of COVID on a community.--And, perhaps you are facing another, internal devastation that no one even knows about. The Bible gives us a place for hope in these times.

The children of Israel failed the test of faithful obedience time and time again. Let us heed the warnings to their unfaithfulness and follow our faithful God-

The Lord continues His paradoxical preaching as He gets deep into our heart and our desires. Do we desire His kingdom- Are we finding our right standing in our own works or His finished work-