If you were to ask most people what their chief aim or goal in life was, they would probably tell you something like, “to be happy”. Even our constitution states that we all have the right to pursue happiness. And happiness is good, but it should not be our main goal in life. The problem is that often we confuse the difference between happiness and joy. And you would think that of all the countries in the world were people would be the happiest would be right here in America. But depression affects more than 19 percent of American Adults, and anxiety disorders affect more than 40 million, or 18 percent of the population. A 2016 Federal data analysis found that suicide rates in America had surged to their highest level in 30 years, rising in that period by 63 percent among middle-class women and 43 percent among men of the same age. So, this tells us that joy and happiness aren’t dependent on wealth and circumstances. It would appear that those who have the most reason to be joyful are often the most depressed. Theologian J. P. Moreland said, “We Americans are obsessed with being happy, but we are terribly confused about what happiness is. As a result, we seldom find happiness that lasts.” So maybe we have it all wrong. Maybe it is not happiness that we should be seeking after all. Because happiness comes and goes based on circumstances. Rather, what we should be seeking is joy! And all joy comes from the Lord. In this week’s message we are going to look at how following Jesus can bring you ultimate fulfillment and joy in life.

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05.13 A Life Of Joy

Love could possibly be the most over used word in the English language, and possibly the most complex word. Think about all the things we say we “love.” For example, I love football, hot wings, Star Wars, Stryper, and playing the drums. I also love reading, running, swimming, and bike riding. I love my family, I love one of my two dogs (I tolerate the other one because I love my daughter). I love my truck but would really love a new one. I love good movies, I love ice cream, I even love romance, I love good theology, and of course I love God. We can’t go anywhere without seeing our hearing about love. Love songs are on the radio, and there are numerous movies and books about love. But often the songs that are on the radio, and what we see on TV and in the movies about love is a self-centered, destructive kind of love. A love that is much different from love that is spelled out in the Bible. We “love” so many things, and then we turn around and in the same breath with saying we love pizza, we say we love our spouse and God. We seem to be obsessed with the world love in our culture. But yet, we don’t really understand love. We are confused as to what true love really is. And because we have this hole in the human heart we are desperate for love. So desperate that we do destructive things in the name of love. So, what is love? What is real, true, lasting, genuine love? And how do we get it? The Bible has a lot to say about love. In the New International Version of the Bible, the word love occurs 567 times. From Genesis to Revelation you will find the story of God’s unconditional and relentless love for mankind. So, as we begin this new series called The Amazing Life, we begin with love. Because love is what makes every other part of life so amazing! In this week’s message we are going to do two things. We are going to define what love is and we are going to learn how to be a better lover.

05.06 A Life Of Love

Freedom. We love it and we take it for granted. The founders of our country said that faith was a fundamental human right. Actually, it is the very first human right in the Bill of Rights. Our nation’s Delectation of Independence begins by saying, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” It continues by saying, “To secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men.” Meaning, the purpose of the government is to ensure that the rights of the people are upheld. And then in order to ensure the protection of these rights, our nation’s founders drafted the Bill of Rights, the first of which reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In other words, Christians have a right to worship their God, and Muslims can do the same, so can Buddhists, Hindus and even Satanists for that matter. And nobody has the right to tell us who, what or how to worship. However, persecution is happening all over our globe and it is happening in America as well. People are being told who, what and how they can worship, and if they don’t conform they pay a serious price. This denial of freedom affects people of all faiths, yet followers of Christ are the most widely persecuted religious group in the world. According to the US Department of State, Christians face persecution of some kind in more than sixty different countries today. What can we do about this? How can we get involved? How does the Gospel require us to live in a world where many of our brothers and sisters are suffering for following Jesus? Is there anything we can do? In this week’s message we want to explore some of these questions and we want to learn the gospel truth about persecution.

04.29 Persecution

Growing up in and living in Mississippi for a vast portion of my life, I have seen my share of racism (and sadly and shamefully have participated in it). And, there is no question that racism is still alive and well today, not just in Mississippi but across our country. We may not have separate bathrooms or drinking fountains, and “colored” people no longer have to sit at the back of the bus, but that does not mean that our hearts and attitudes have not changed when it comes to people who have a different color skin than us. I hear it in the way we talk. The way we speak of “them” and “us”. I know I have been guilty of this. But even as Christians we still do it. Our churches are even segregated. And I understand there are cultural differences between different ethnic groups. Every culture has its own identity and that is good, that reflects a creative God. But what is not good is when we think our culture, our way of doing things, is superior and right and their way is wrong. At best, we “tolerate” those people, but inside we don’t genuinely love them. My friends that has to change. And the church has to do a better job on race relationships. Again, in some ways we have improved but in other ways it is as if we are still living as we did a generation or more ago. The gospel of Jesus Christ has freed all men! And it compels us to live as one with one another, regardless of our ethnic diversity. In this week’s message, I want to do two things. First, I want to give a brief history lesson on race based on Scripture. And then I want to show us how the gospel makes all races equal at the foot of the cross.

04.22 Racism

When I was a little boy I was fascinated with the idea of kings and queens. I mean who doesn’t love stories that are told of great kings and their kingdoms, whether fairy-tale or real? Like king David or king Solomon or King Author and the Knights of the Round Table, and King Aragorn in Lord of the Rings. Kings are rich and usually get the pretty girl. Kings have castles and moats, and swords and horses, and servants and lots of food and people bow to them. It is good to be king! What little boy did not fantasize in some way about being the king of a great kingdom? Well, Jesus is the greatest king who ever lived. And he talked quite a bit about his kingdom. In fact, the Bible talks extensively about Jesus’ kingdom, or what we refer to as The Kingdom of God. In this message, we are going to explore the gospel truth about the Kingdom of God, and why it matters to you and me. We will discuss what this kingdom looks like and what our role is in the kingdom of God.

04.15 The Kingdom Of God

04.08 Living Life the Right Way

04.01 New Life - Easter 2018

This week we are going to look at the gospel truth about reaching the lost. At some point we are all lost. All of us seek a path that seems right to us, but in the end that path leads to death. Proverbs tells us: “There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Proverbs 14:12 (NLT) When we seek our own path that leads to spiritual death. The Bible calls that sin. We are all sinners and sin leads to death. The apostle said, God’s Law, such as the Ten Commandments, show us how we are to live, but the law also shows us that it is impossible to live up to God’s standards. Because of our sin nature, we are prone to wonder far from God and live in our sin. And we can never meet all of his requirements. That means we are lost. And, if you are lost that means you need to be found. Although, tragically, some don’t want to be found. But it is our responsibility to at least offer the right path, the path of salvation, which is Jesus Christ, to a lost world. Whether they accept it or not isup to them. But it is our responsibility to share the truth with them. We are called to be his witnesses. We are to go out to all of the world and tell people about Jesus. And not only did Jesus command us to go, but he also modeled for us how to share our faith. We are going to examine a story found in John chapter four that communicates to us a perfect way to reveal Jesus to a lost world.

03.25 Reaching The Lost

03.18 Immigration

Let me begin with a confession: I stink at praying. Some people have a wonderful, rigid prayer life where they wake up early and fall prostrate on the ground at 4:00 AM and stay there for 3 hours before they start their day. Tried that...I kept falling asleep. Then when I listen to some people pray I think, “Wow, that is awesome, my words could never be as eloquent as theirs or as passionate as theirs.” And then sometimes, I just don’t know how to pray; I’m not sure what to say. At other times, my mind drifts. I start off in prayer and I’m praising God and praying for my family, and for Sally and Sam, the poor, and the president and then suddenly I’m thinking about what I’m gonna fix for dinner tonight. Then it hits me, “Oh yeah, I was praying”! And prayer can also be so confusing. Because sometimes God will answer these big amazing prayers for healing or financial situations for some people, but then it seems he doesn’t answer the prayers of others at all. So, if you’re like me, you recognize that prayer is hard. But yet, it’s essential. Prayer is as important as breathing. And there is power in prayer. Therefore, we all need a healthy prayer life. That’s why I have learned that Prayer doesn’t have to be perfect; it just has to be practiced! And fortunately for us, James, the ever-practical theologian, gives us a divine prescription plan for prayer.

03.11 A Healthy Prayer Life

In this week’s message we are going to break away from some of the more controversial issues we have been discussing and look at the gospel truth about the Lord’s Supper. We need to understand the importance and significance of this sacrament. I was raised in a denomination that said to have communion more than a couple of times a year would cheapen it and make it a ritual. And I can certainly see their reasoning behind that. We ritualize so many things. Other denominations do it weekly, if not daily, and they think it is essential to your spiritual growth to do it daily. And then, some of us just do it because the church says we should, but we are not really sure why we are even doing it! In this message I want to look at the history and heritage of the Lord’s Supper. I also want to look at its purpose and function. I want to help define who can participate in communion and who can’t. And ultimately, I want to give you a biblical picture of what communion is. The term “communion” means “a shared or mutual participation.” It is not a word that we find in the Bible. It comes from the word “community.” In communion, you can see there is a shared or a mutual participation of the redeemed community; therefore, it is called communion. However, the Bible has a word that it uses for this celebration, and the term is “the Lord’s Supper.” Paul actually uses that phrase in 1 Corinthians 11 to describe the act of communion. The Lord’s Supper is what he calls it.

03.04 The Lord's Supper

Abortion. It is a word and a topic that many want to avoid. Some refuse to even engage in the conversation, claiming they aren’t “political”. Let’s get one thing straight from the beginning, abortion is not a political issue, it is a moral issue. And it is something that we as Christians should not only talk about, but more importantly, we should be on the front lines fighting against. Across the world, 42 million abortions occur every year. That’s 115,00 abortions every single day. The reality is that 1 out 4 women have had an abortion. And in the church 1 out of 10 women have had an abortion. So what do we do? Where do we begin? The key question we have to both ask and answer is: What is contained in the womb? It is a person? Or, is it merely an embryo, a fetus? Once that question is answered then all other questions are answered. Think about it this way. I like what Gregory Koukl says, “If the unborn is not a human person, no justification for abortion is necessary.” However, he continues, “If the unborn is a human person then no justification of abortion is adequate.” Without a doubt the primary issue in the debate over abortion is the identity of the unborn. In the message we will look at God’s relationship with the unborn and we will discern what our role as Christian’s are in a culture that is counter to the sanctity of human life.

02.18 The Unborn

We are about to embark on a 13-week series seeking out the truth of the gospel. The gospel always creates confrontation with the culture around us. The gospel is the lifeblood of Christianity, and thus it provides the foundation for countering the culture. When we truly believe the gospel, we begin to realize that the gospel compels us as Christians to confront social issues around us. If we are going to really live out the gospel, if we are going to really follow Jesus, then we are going to have to stand up for the truth of the gospel. We are going to have to confront society on what they say is right or normal when it contradicts what the gospel says. It is time to take a stand for what is right! It is time for the church, for us as followers of Christ, to quit being passive and to start taking a active role in defending the truth of the gospel. God has acted and spoken, and he has declared absolute truth. We can’t decide to not live by God’s standards because it either offends somebody or because we are afraid of persecution. If we love Jesus and his gospel, then we have to live it out and stand up for it. Over the next thirteen weeks we are going to look at what the Bible says about certain social issues that the culture goes against, and we are also going to look at some spiritual disciplines and ordinances that we should be observing as a church to help us better stand up for truth.

02-04 Serving The Least of These

In this series on Right Relationships, we have looked at our relationship with God, with other Christians, with the world, and today we end this series by looking at our relationship with our enemies. And as Christians, our relationship with our enemies should not look the same as how the world views relationships with enemies. Our values as Christians don’t match up with the values of the culture. And thus, that produces enemies. Even as Christians, we all have enemies. Maybe you have enemies because you are a jerk, that is certainly one way to get enemies and keep them! But maybe you have enemies simply because people don’t like your value system or the way you live your life. You might have enemies because you refuse to act, say and respond to a particular issue the way somebody else does and they don’t like it. Or, maybe because you have a different color skin, or cultural background than someone else, you have enemies. Or, maybe someone is flat out jealous of your success, or the person you married, or the life you have (and they don’t have) so they don’t “like” you. There are lots of reasons to have enemies. But whatever the reason, don’t worry, you are in good company because even Jesus had enemies! And so did the apostle Paul who wrote the book of Romans. And Paul gives us some great advice in Romans 12:14-21 on how to deal with our enemies. Join us this Sunday as we learn how we are to live in relation to our enemies. It’s radically different than the culture’s view.

01.28 Our Relationship With Our Enemies

This sin-stained world may not be our permeant home, but we do live here and we have to learn how to act and live in a culture that runs contrary to our belief system. And let’s be honest, what we believe is radically different than what the world believes. The Christian worldview is radically different from the culture’s view on things like: poverty, same-sex marriage, racism, pornography, immigration, abortion, orphans and sex slavery, to name a few. So how do we live life in a way that honors Jesus and his gospel and still get along with those who act, think and live differently than we do? Fortunately for us, the apostle Paul gave us an answer. In Romans 12:9-13, Paul tells us how we are to live in this world and how to have right relationships with those who have a different perspective on life than we do. Pastor Michael and I are going to tag-team this message Sunday. And, we are not only going to reveal to you what the apostle Paul says about right relationships with the world, but we are also going to reveal to you a plan of action on how to hate evil and take a stand against sex- trafficking. We believe that God wants us to fight for these victims sold into this horrible, unthinkable, evil enterprise. Join us as we uncover what Paul has to say about Right Relationships with the World.

01.21 Our Relationship with the World

Weekly sermons from NBC Ministries, Jackson, MS

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