Jun 22, 2025 

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Wade Burgess
Executive Pastor


The Cure for Circumstantial Amnesia

Psalm 136

His steadfast love endures forever

His - God
 • Psalm 23
 • Psalm 90
 • Psalm 103
 • Psalm 139
 • Psalm 145

Steadfast - a firm, unwavering commitment and determination
Love - God’s love is the only one experienced from a perfect being with perfect intent
Endures - to withstand hardship, persecution, or adversity with patience and perseverance

We cure amnesia by:

1 Giving Thanks - v 1-4
2 Seeing Nature - v5-9
3 Telling Stories - v 10-22
4 Recognizing the Order - v 23-26


Mental Worship
1. How could you make it a habit to count your blessings?
2. If you were to write your own Psalm, what should it include?
3. If your story is only of pain and heartache, what do you think God is up to?
4. Are you more likely to remember than anticipate God's goodness?

Jun 15, 2025  GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptist Church


Jonah 4:1-5
God’s Freedom To Be God

1. God’s nature doesn’t conform to our emotions, v. 1

Four things about anger…
a) anger is a secondary emotion
b) anger doesn’t earn me the right to be in charge
c) anger turned inward becomes depression
d) anger is an invitation to identify your root idols

Four root idols…
 Power: a longing for influence or recognition
 Control: a longing to have everything go according to my plan
 Comfort: a longing for pleasure
 Approval: a longing to be accepted or desired

2. God’s nature is not subject to our preferences, v. 2-3

Components of a prophetic complaint…
a) We accuse God of injustice
b) We point to something God said, did or didn’t do as evidence
c) We request a correction of the injustice

Three things about God’s nature…
1) it’s not one dimensional
2) it’s not open to interpretation
    • Exodus 34:6-8
3) it’s expressed in God’s timing
    • Nahum 1:1-15

3. God’s nature invites self-reflection, v. 3-4

Mental worship…

1. What is your theology of anger?
2.  Does your love of country ever over rule God’s love for the nations?
3. Are you balanced in your view of God’s nature? 
4. What part of your life is God’s nature inviting you to think about today?
5. What kind of spiritual progress have you made over the past year?

Jun 8, 2025 

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

The Essence of Biblical Repentance
Jonah 3:3-3:10

1. The message you preach informs the response, v. 3b-4
Romans 3:23
Romans 3:21-25

2. There is a difference in repentance and appeasement, v. 5-9

Notice what they did…
a) they believed God, v. 5
b) they were sorry, v. 5
c) they went into a complete fast
d) they prayed, v. 8
e) they turned from sin and violence, v. 8

2 Corinthians 7:8-13

The fruit of repentance…
1 earnestness- what is your focus?
2 eagerness to clear yourselves-is telling the truth hard for you?
3 indignation- where is your anger directed?
4 fear- what is your fear?
5 longing- what is the biggest desire of your heart?
6 zeal- what are you most passionate about?
7 punishment- who do you want to punish?
8 proof- what do you point to as evidence that your repentance is real?
9 comfort- who is comforted by your repentance?


3. God’s mercy is easily accessible, v. 10
Ephesians 2:4-6
Lamentations 3:22-24
Isaiah 30:18
Psalm 103:8
Hebrews 4:16
Psalm 23:6



Mental worship…

1. What is missing from the message you preach?
2. Which best describes the way you respond when you sin: appeasement or 
    repentance? 
3. What did you hear today that you will think about this week? 
4. Do you believe God’s mercy is as big as His sovereignty? 
5. Do people enjoy themselves around you?

Jun 1, 2025 

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

Jonah 2:10-3:3b
God’s Commitment to the Message


1. God speaks to anyone who will listen, v. 2:10

Some of the ways God speaks to us…

a) Creation

Psalm 19:1-4
Romans 1:18-20

b) Bible/the Word

Psalm 1:1-3

c) prayer
d) spiritual authority
e) circumstances


2. God repeats Himself, v. 1-2

Three similarities between them…

a) Peter ran from his calling, just like Jonah, and Peter got a second chance to submit to God. 
b) Peter is similar to Jonah in that he was the first of the apostle to cross the Jew/Gentile boundary with the gospel.
c) Peter receives his vision about the animals being clean at the house of Simon the Tanner in the city of Joppa. 

3. God speaks through His prophets, v. 2


“We are not diplomats but prophets, and our message is not a compromise but an ultimatum.”

• A.W. Tozer
  
  

Three evidences of a prophet…

a) They live in the unseen.
b) The speak for God.
c) They move according to the word of the Lord, v. 3


= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 

Mental worship…


1. When is the last time you had good “tone” on something? 
2. When you pray, are you talking to God or thinking about the people in the room who are hearing you? 
3. Have you ever tried to disqualify yourself with your behavior from something God was calling you to?
4. What one word best describes a life lived according to the Word?
5. What would you like to ask God to repeat?
6. Do you have prophetic friends and who are they?

May 25, 2025

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor
Grand Parkway Baptist Church


The Glory of Disobedience
Jonah 1:17-2:10

Introductory thoughts…

     a) We have consumed Jonah upon our comfort theology
     b) The book of Jonah was not recorded as they were happening. The first part of our passage is descriptive and then there is this long psalm of thanksgiving from verses 2-9 which describes, after the fact, what Jonah went through.
     c) You have to pick your miracle.

1. A sovereign God does everything for a reason, v. 17
-Matthew 12:38-41

2. It’ never too late to pray, v. 2:1-2
Luke 16:22-24

3. There is a consequence for disobedience, v. 3-6a

Progression of disobedience…
     a) deceitfulness of sin
     b) rationalization

“Rationalization is a process of not perceiving reality, but of attempting to make reality fit one’s emotions.”
                 -Ayn Rand
c) hardness of heart
d) seared conscious

4. This is a picture of salvation, v. 6b-9
Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5

“The highest motive, in heaven and earth, for obedience is love resulting from gratitude.”
             -Dan DeHaan

Mental worship…

1 Do you ever find yourself asking God to prove Himself to you?
2 What is the weirdest place you’ve ever prayed from?
3 Thinking back in your life, can you see places where sin deceived you?
4 Do you believe in a God who punishes sinners not just sin?
5 What is the trajectory of your relationship with God these days? Down, away, or up? 
6 Do you have to work up the energy to be thankful or does it come naturally? 

May 18, 2025 

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

How To Solve A Problem
Jonah 1:4-2:1

1. What is the nature of the problem? v. 5-6
Jeremiah 23:18-22

Three kinds of response to the problem…

a) spiritual- “each cried out to his god”   
1) polytheism- the belief or worship of more than one god.
2) monotheism- the belief that their is only one God. Dt. 6:4
3) henotheism- the belief that there are many gods who are the same 
               but they are just called by different names. 

b) physical- “and they hurled the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it for them.”
c) emotional- “But Jonah had gone down into the inner part of the ship and had lain down and was fast asleep.” 


Inappropriate sleep patterns/habits are many things…
a) a sign of depression
b) a form of avoidance
c) subtle form of escape
d) unconscious denial- an unconscious response to a conscious problem. 

2. Who is responsible for the problem? v. 7-16

3. What is God’s response to the problem? v. 17

“God’s grace is not infinite. God is infinite, and God is gracious. We experience the grace of an infinite God, but grace is not infinite. God sets limits to His patience and forbearance. He warns us over and over again that someday the ax will fall and His judgment will be poured out.”  - R.C. Sproul

Mental worship…

1. Are you currently living in disobedience to something the Lord has told you to do?
2. What is the order by which you respond to problems? 
3. Is God repeating anything to you these days?
4. Is there anybody that you refuse to have your mind changed about?
5. How is God’s judgment a sign of His love? 
6. Have you ever had an experience with God’s judgement that turned your heart back towards God?

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

The Motivating Power of God’s Nature
Jonah 1:1-4

Introductory thoughts on the book of Jonah…
a) Jonah is a prophetic narrative
b) Jonah is not an allegory
c) Symbolic use of geography and climate

1. Hearing the Word of the Lord comes with a responsibility, v. 1

2. God sees things as they are and as they will be, v. 2

3. God can be patient in response to evil, v. 2
     Psalm 103:8-14

4. There is no where you can go to get away from God, v. 3
   Psalm 139:1-12

Two things this passage teaches us: 
a) God knows us
b) God knows where we are

5. Disobedience is a downward journey, v. 3

6. God is sovereign over all things and He uses everything over which He is sovereign, v. 4

Mental worship…

1. What is the last thing you would say you heard from the Lord?
2. Can you see things as they are and as they will be?
3. Have you ever run from God and what was the outcome? How did you know you were running? 
4. What about God’s nature motivates your obedience?
5. Is the direction of your life more up or down these days?

May 4, 2025 

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

How to change spiritual numbness
1Samuel 3:1-18

1. Believe that God wants to speak to his people. v.1-4

How God speaks
A. The Spirit
B. The Scripture 
C. The Church

2. Know God must reveal himself. 4-7

3. Remember God is patient but not a pushover. 11-14

Obstacles to hearing God
A. Sin   
B. Inexperience
C. Expectation

4. Accept that God does what he wants. v.16-18


Mental Worship

How does God usually get your attention?
Has God reveled himself to you? How do you know?
What is a recent Word God has said to you? What are you doing with it?
If God were to answer the next thing you ask him, what would you ask?
Has God ever used hardship as a way of rescuing you?
What do you have to do more of, or less of, to hear God better?

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

Holy Week Afterthoughts
Romans 8:31-39

1. God is for us, v. 31

Romans 1:1-7

2. The Cross is an indication of God’s posture towards us, v. 32

”graciously”- to freely give and to give generously

3. God’s mind about me is unchangeable, v. 33-34a

“There is unspeakable comfort – the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates – in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.”     - J.I. Packer, Knowing God

4. Robust theology is helpful, v. 33b-34

The accomplishments of Christ...
a)   crucifixion- “Christ Jesus is the one who died"
b)   resurrection- “more than that, who was raised”
c)   ascension- “who is at the right hand of God” 
d)   intercession- “who is interceding for us” 

5. God will never not love me, v. 35


Mental worship…
1. Do you believe that God is for you? 
2. When is the last time you experienced God’s graciousness? 
3. Do you ever wonder what Jesus is praying for you?
4. How does hardship affect the way you think about God?
5. What question is your soul asking as a result of what you heard today?

Apr 20, 2025

GRAND PARKWAY BAPTIST CHURCH

Neil McClendon, Lead Pastor

God’s Big Picture Plan for Resurrection Sunday
Luke 24:36-49

1. That something hard to believe would happen, v. 36-43
     Two responses to Jesus…
          a) doubt, v. 38
          b) disbelieved for joy, v. 41

“"If Christ is not risen, nothing else matters. And if Christ is risen, nothing else matters.”
             - Jaroslav Pelikan

2. That we would have a Bible we can believe, v. 44

3. That Christ should suffer, v. 46
     Luke 9:22

Three reasons Christ had to suffer…
     1) because we’ve all sinned and fallen short of God’s standard
     2) because our sin separates us from God
     3) because sin requires a sacrifice for us to be reconciled to God

4. That on the third day He would rise from the dead, v. 46
     Some examples of the third day pattern…
          a) Genesis 1:9-13- God creates dry land, vegetation, plants, trees
          b) Genesis 22:4- “On the third day, Abraham saw the place…”
          c) Jonah 1:17- in belly of the fish for three days and nights
          d) Hosea 6:1-2

5. That change would be possible for everyone, v. 47
     a) “of sins”
     b) “in his name”
     c) “to all nations” 

6. That we would have the capacity to do what God requires, v. 49

Mental worship….
1 How often do you struggle with doubt and are you doubting anything these days? 
2 When is the last time you experienced something so good it was hard for you to believe it?
3 What is one thing you would be willing to start believing about the Bible?
4 Have you gotten to your “third day” yet?
5 Do you need forgiveness for sin or do you need God to change how you  feel about what you did?
6 Do you ever experience this power that God promises?