Good Morning Family!
After last weeks sermon about hearing the Gospel for the first time and how Zacchaeus responded to the clear message of Jesus, it got me to thinking… and that’s when things get a little dangerous! 😊 It reminded me that we need to be very intentional about staying biblically grounded and on a solid foundation.
We have been, in our Tuesday 1:3ABF gatherings, discussing the eternal state of believers and also looking at the final end of those who wind up far from the Lord. However, there is quite a bit that will happen in this world in the final days leading up to the return of Christ. There will be “The Falling Away” as Paul calls it in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, emphasis on the definite article “the”.
As I contemplated this along with a few other things the Lord has brought to my mind over the past month, I considered that it has been a while since we had a very foundational sermon series; a primer, a rubric regarding basic Biblical doctrines and an aggressive defense for why we believe what we believe as we wear the name Baptist as a church.
Of course, we are first followers of Jesus, but there are distinctives as to why we are a Baptist church like we are. And those distinctives are not traditions, but they are clear teachings of Scripture regarding such things like: the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures in regard to all we believe, the nature of God as one God in three persons, the nature of salvation through Christ alone, the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers, the body of Christ as the church, the need for purposeful discipleship, and the nature of the end of all things and the return of Christ, among many other biblical truths regarding many basics of the faith that are under siege in today’s world through misleading teachings and just plain opposition.
In 2014, the very first year here together, I led through a teaching series entitled, “On These We Stand”. It was a defense of why we believe what we believe biblically in regard to the foundations of the faith and the nature of the church. Later that same year, we walked through the series, “Spiritual Departures” where we took a hard look at what the Bible says about the twisting of doctrines and how we are called to carefully and lovingly test everything by the standard of scripture. And through the years, we have taken turns at refreshing these things along the way in different sermon series to be sure we remain a solidly biblical church.
All that said, I believe the Lord is leading me to bring us to home base once again to help us remain on track and on solid footing in the Word. I’m not sure how it will pan out or when we will begin, but it could be anytime.
As always, my prayer is that we would all, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of truth.” II Timothy 2:15
Your Shepherd of the Hills,
Bro. Steven
Dr. Steven Gann
