Hopewell Baptist Church Napa, CA Sermon Podcast

"Maturing in the Christian Life" was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday evening, 8/22/2021.

You can watch the video archive of this sermon on our church website. You can also watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, Medium, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

"Where To Get Peace During Chaotic Times" was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday morning, 8/22/2021.

You can watch the video archive of this sermon on our church website. You can also watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, Medium, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

"Leading a Soul to Christ Part 2" was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, 8/18/2021.

You can watch the video archive of this sermon on our church website. You can also watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, Medium, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

“Samson: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly” was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday morning (Western Sunday), 8/15/2021.

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them to the book of Judges, chapter 13. We’ve been in Judges on Sunday nights. We will just about finish up this morning.

Some of your old-timers will remember this tune. It’s the tune to that old western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. So, today on Western Sunday, we’re talking about some people you’ve dated a long time ago. All three of them — the good, the bad, and the ugly. No, I’m just kidding. But I’m going to speak this morning about a man in the book of Judges whose life could be described as the good, the bad, and then the ugly. Samson.

We still start looking down in Judges 13:24: “And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.”

Let’s pray. Father, bless the reading of Thy Word. I pray that You would help us as we look at this life and learn from it. You don’t put people’s lives — the good and the bad — in the Bible just to entertain us or take up space. It’s there to help us. Help us learn — not the hard way or learn from experience — but learn from other people’s experiences. I pray that You would meet with us today and help us. A lot of different needs. A lot of stuff on our minds. For some, it’s bills. For others, personal issues. Others, it’s emotional battles. For some, it’s housing. Others, it’s pain, rejection, emotional, spiritual, all sorts of things. Lord, only You can take one short message and give everyone something. So, we ask that You do that. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

He has been called the strongest man that ever lived. And we’re talking physically. His name was Sampson. One day, he got angry at the enemies and picked up the city gates. He picked them up, carried them to a hill, and left them there. Another time, he was in a battle — not an MMA battle in one cage — but he fought 1,000 men single-handedly. He picked up the jawbone of a donkey, and that was his weapon. He killed 1,000 men by himself. He’s the one that when they tied him up as a prisoner with all these ropes, he just broke the ropes like they were flax that had melted. He’s the one that put his hands on the two major pillars of the temple, pushed and broke the pillars, causing the temple to come down. I would say he was a pretty strong man.

His background. He lived in the days of the judges. This was a time when God had judged the nation of Israel, much like America. They had turned their back on the Word of God. They decided to do their own thing. When God spoke, they did not listen. And the key verse where it says “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” There is a difference between what is right and what is right in our own eyes. And that’s how they lived. In other words, their philosophy was, “If it feels good, do it.” “If it feels good to me, it doesn’t matter how it hurts anybody else. I am all that matters.” And that is the theme of this book of Judges.

The Philistines. God had removed His hand of protection from Israel. The Philistines, an enemy nation, had taken over the nation of Israel. It was a sad day. The temple was not being used. God was not being glorified. A lot of chaos was going on. So, what did He do in His mercy? He sent what we call a deliverer or a judge to help get the people out of this sad time.

And maybe you’ve experienced that. You’ve gone into captivity where you’ve had dark times and dark valleys. Maybe God sent a Bible verse, or God sent a sermon, or God sent a friend, or God sent something or someone to help you realize, like the song says, “He still loves you, and He still cares.”

And so that’s what this book is about. He sends his deliverer named Sampson. If you have your Bible, I want you to look first at how it began The Good.

Judges 13:3–5 “And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son. 4 Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing: 5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no rasor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God…” In other words, God had a special plan for him. Judges 13:5b “…from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.”

And so when, when the mother of Samson is going to have this child, an angel appears and announces it. Judges 13:8 “Then Manoah intreated the Lord, and said, O my Lord, let the man of God which thou didst send come again unto us, and teach us what we shall do unto the child that shall be born.”

So, they were teachable. He says, “We don’t know how to raise kids. This will be our first one.” By the way, how many of you were the firstborn child? They experimented on you. You are the ones that got all the whoopings, huh? You got caught for everything. And how many of you are the caboose? You’re the last child? You spoiled ones. Got away with murder. Your paddle had a pillow on it so when they paddled, you wouldn’t get hurt, and you got to do whatever you wanted to.

So, here’s Sampson. His parents say, “We don’t know how to raise this child. Would you instruct us? Would you teach us how? There’re no books out on parenting to read.”

And then we see in Judges 13:17 “And Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour?” He wanted to honor this angel that came and announced this good news. Judges 13:24 “And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.”

So, we see the good here. Samson had a godly heritage. He had parents that loved God. He had parents that wanted to do right. He had teachable parents. The angel instructed them what to do. He would be a Nazarite. That simply meant following a kind of strange set of rules. He couldn’t cut his hair, couldn’t eat anything from a vine — grapes, raisins, anything — for some reason. God said he would be a special person, and that’s part of it. People will see the seven ponytails coming out of your hair. They’ll know you’re a Nazarite and that you have a special job from God.

So, he had a great upbringing. He had great potential. An angel announced his birth. God says I’ve got something special for you. Potential.

By the way, that’s what everyone has in this room right now. We do not know who is really in this room. We don’t know the potential in the kid’s Sunday School classes today. It could be the next president. Could be the next prime minister. Could be some great inventor. It could be some great evangelist. We don’t know. But I know this: we all have potential.

The first part of Samson’s life was good.

For the rest of the message, be sure to watch the video above or visit our church website. You can watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, Medium, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook or Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

"The Book of James Part 2: Get the Sin Out" was preached by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Sunday evening, 8/15/2021.

You can watch the video archive of this sermon on our church website. You can also watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, Medium, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

The following sermon excerpt entitled “Christ is All I Need” was preached by Jonathan Ray at Hopewell Baptist Church on Wednesday evening, 8/11/2021.

Because many just got back from camp last week, decisions are fresh on our minds. Sermons about going home changed and living godly lives result in decisions. I remember the ride back from camp with a list of decisions. I am going home changed. The topic of tonight’s sermon was not clear in mind, though. I had the idea that I was going to go home and try really really hard to live godly. A lot of times that leads to frustration and disappointment. God wants us to understand tonight that godliness is not about our willpower to change. A changed life does not come through what I do but what Christ has done for me. Christ is all I need. And that’s the title tonight: “Christ is All I Need.”

Text: Colossians 2:8–9 “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

The theme of the book of Colossians is Christ is sufficient. Christ is all we need. It’s not Christ plus something extra. It’s not “yes, but…” Three times in this passage Paul says it’s not “yes, but…” It’s yes period. Christ is all you need. Paul warns against three sets of dangerous teachings that say Christ is not all you need. They all follow a pattern. It does like this:

Good works don’t save you, but good works make you godly.

You don’t have to work at all to gain God’s forgiveness, but you must work like a dog to gain God’s love and approval.

Being birthed into God’s family is through the power of God, Living day to day in God’s family is through the power of me.

Justification by faith, sanctification by works.

Being born again has nothing to do with my performance, being godly has everything to do with my performance.

The whole idea is Christians receive God’s free gift of salvation and then try to maintain God’s favor by their accomplishments. We are going to read three ways Christians do this. What Paul says about this at the end of the passage is startling, very startling. Through all of this, Paul is reminding us, Christ is all we need.

The goal tonight is to read this text and understand what it means, what it doesn’t mean, and what we are to do with it.

For the rest of the message, be sure to watch the video above or visit our church website. You can watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook or Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.

The following sermon excerpt entitled “The Book of James Part 1: Patience” was preached on Sunday evening by Pastor Mike Ray at Hopewell Baptist Churchon Sunday evening, 8/8/2021.

If you have your Bibles, let’s open them please to the book of James and chapter 1. And we’re going to look at a little background to this book, and then we’ll try to teach and preach a little of the first section here. I’m going to read the first twelve verses this is all we’re going to deal with tonight. Notice how he starts:

James 1:1–12 “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. 2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. 7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. 8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Skip down to verse 12: “Blessed [or happy] is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” We’ll give you some background, then we’ll get into the message.

Let’s pray. Father, bless the reading of Thy Word. Thank You for including this in the Bible. Help us to see how we are to use it even right now in our everyday life. In Jesus’ name, we ask, Amen.

The theme of the book of Hebrews — the book before this — is faith in the Christian life. The theme of the book of James is works in the Christian life. One person argues, “But aren’t we just saved by faith?” Oh yes. “Well, what about works? Faith without works is dead (James 2:17).” Well, here’s how it works. Because of His finished work, we don’t have to work our way to Heaven. It’s all by faith, but real faith works.

So, if someone really gets the kind of faith God wants us to have and we’ve trusted Him as our Savior, it will make us want to work. We do not work to earn Heaven; We work because we’re on our way to Heaven. And that’s how it is.

It’s like someone asking, “Are you ironing all your husband’s shirts because you have to do that?” The wife says, “No, I get to do that. I do it because I love him, not because I have to.” And so, we don’t have to serve the Lord. We get to.

Who is this guy James? There’s a couple of studies. One person thinks it was the cousin of Jesus. Many scholars believe he was actually His half-brother, one of the children born to Joseph and Mary after the virgin birth. There’re several arguments about that, but I believe this James was a very mature Christian.

We see him mentioned in the Book of Acts. They had a council. Paul and Barnabas came, and they preached the Gospel to the Gentiles — the non-Jews, and the Jewish Christians were upset. So, they had a meeting. Guess who was in charge? James. James was called to the meeting to oversee it and give his opinion. So, he was a very respected man, a very respected Apostle.

He’s also one of the three that when Paul got saved, Paul said in Galatians 2:9, “And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars…” in the church. So, the new convert, Paul, said that whoever this James is, he’s carrying a load, and he is respected. And then we see in Acts 15, 17, and I think 21 several times there’s an assembly, and James is leading the talk. So, he was very well respected by people like Paul and Barnabas. They looked up to him. The early church leaders — they looked up to him. You would call him a mature Christian. They cared about what he said.

James, the author of this book. He’s the one in 1 Corinthians 15, the “resurrection chapter,” where it says after Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to the disciples, to Peter, and 500 others. It says He also appeared to James (1 Cor. 15:7). He singled out James. Isn’t that amazing?

If James really was the half-brother of Jesus, then Jesus was a lot older than him because He was the firstborn. Maybe Jesus was already out of the house by the time James was a teenager. We don’t know. But I know how hard it is to recognize greatness in your own family. You ever notice the plumber that fixes the neighbors leaky faucet is the hero. If he fixes his own faucet, the family says it’s about time! And so, Jesus is doing these miracles. “Oh yeah right. We never saw him do a miracle in our house.” Paul says, “By the way, James saw Jesus resurrected from the dead.” Maybe that was the clincher for James. “I heard all these miracles You supposedly did, but now, because I’ve seen You rise from the dead, I’m in.”

God uses James to write this great, great book. Someone would call it the proverbs of the New Testament. It includes the marks of a mature Christian, that’s what this whole book is about. Very practical. Almost every chapter deals with a different subject.

How important was this to James? In AD 62, James was killed for his faith. They called him “camel knees.” They had a legend that he prayed so long and so hard on his knees that his knees were swollen, and they look more like camel’s knees than human knees.

He’s the only Apostle we know that stayed in Jerusalem. The others scattered because of persecution and mission work. James stayed with that early church. It is said by several different historians that James was called up to the pinnacle of the temple, the place where they tried to push Jesus down and kill Him. They told James to stand up there and tell the crowd, “Tell us Who you believe Jesus is.” And he said, “Jesus is the Son of God. He sits at the Father’s right hand. He’s the Savior of the world.” At that time, they pushed him off the pinnacle to kill him. He landed but did not die. They say he knelt and began praying for his enemies. At that time, they began stoning him with stones. Finally, a man with a club took the club and beat him to death with it. That’s the man that we’re reading of right now. So, did he believe what he wrote? He must have. He died for his Savior. This was real to him. It wasn’t just words.

Pastor, why is it so important to be a mature Christian? Well, let’s think just a moment of the difference between a baby and a mature person. All right, let me say it’s going to be hard for me to remember. It’s been years since we had a little baby. But I know this: babies cry a lot. Baby Christians sometimes cry. A lot of babies are selfish. If you say “Not mine,” put him in the church nursery, and give him a toy. Then put another child in there. If he puts his toy down and the other kid starts playing with it, he comes all the way back and says, “Mine!” And besides “Jesus” and “Bible” and “tithing,” usually the first word a child learns is “mine” because it just comes naturally. For the immature person, it’s all about them. “Mine.”

For the rest of the message, be sure to watch the video above or visit our church website. You can watch archived services on Vimeo, YouTube, or audio podcast. Stay up to date by following us on Facebook or Instagram.

Hopewell Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church in Napa, California pastored by Mike Ray. It is Bible-based with a warm, friendly atmosphere. Hopewell is dedicated to bringing the water of life to the Napa Valley and beyond.