First Baptist Church Muncie Indiana

God's Power To Rebuild - Ezra 1; 2:1; 2:64-70 - Standing on the Promises: God's Power to Rebuild

"Then the family heads of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites—everyone whose heart God had moved—prepared to go up and build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem." - From Ezra 1:1-8 "It's over now." Those were my thoughts in the fourth quarter as the score slipped further and further out of the Pacers' favor in Game 7 of this year's NBA finals. This is one of the things that I dislike about basketball compared to baseball. There is a timer in basketball. If the leading team is too far ahead, you can see people get up and start to celebrate before it's over. There is an air of inevitability. In baseball, by contrast, something may seem unlikely, but there is always a turnaround possible. The number of outs, not the clock, determines the end of the game. In 1901, the Detroit Tigers came back to beat the Milwaukee Brewers by one run, 14-13. At the beginning of the bottom of the 19th inning, they had been down 13-4. In 2001, the Cleveland Indians took a game to extra innings, overcoming a 12-run deficit. That tied the league record for the most substantial comeback in American professional baseball history. To paraphrase the prophet's words in Isaiah 43, there was a way out made out of no way. God making a way out of no way is exactly what we see in the book of Ezra. The Lord has the power to rebuild. Read more at fbcmuncie.org/blog For more information about messages in this series, or to find out more about First Baptist Church Muncie (FBCM), please see our website: fbcmuncie.org Our video live streams are available on our YouTube channel. Find a video library of past sermons on our church center channel. If you’re looking for a church home, or seeking information about the church, please submit a virtual visitor’s card. To financially support our ministry, please see our Church Center giving page. – Audio-Only Podcast Bumper Music is an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” by Dr. Clifton Davis, FBCM’s Worship Arts Pastor. First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana is a Spirit-led Community gathered to join Christ’s presence in our community. We gather at 309 East Adams Street, Muncie, Indiana, 47305, each week. Our worship service is at 10:45 a.m. Our current scriptural watchword for this season is “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). These message recordings are meant to be shared. Please rate us 5 stars on Spotify, Apple Music, or your podcasting app of choice and share with family and friends.

Justified by Faith, Empowered By The Spriit - Romans 5:1-9 - Our Advocate

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Romans 5:1-5 This week, the title of Pastor Jonathan's sermon is, "Justified by Faith, Empowered by the Spirit." There are times when my own words are not good enough, and it is wiser to simply cede the metaphorical online microphone to someone who draws us into the happy mystery of the Gospel with a fitting word. This week, we learn about the Holy Spirit's role in giving us up— Hope which does not put us to shame. Hope which looks like Christ dying for the ungodly. Come on Sunday to see what the Spirit might say to us through this message. Come to the church blog to see a fitting quotation from Lutheran Pastor Sarah Hinlicky Wilson about the implications of this very good Gospel: "Christ came not for the good. Not even for the ones who wanted to be good or tried to be good. Not for his well-meaning allies, not for the ones who remembered to say thanks. He came for the unrighteous, the sinners, the ungrateful, the evil, the lost, the condemned, the ungodly. In short: his enemies. The ones who don’t want to be saved at all, whether because they don’t think they need it or because they frankly prefer their sins to God’s company. Christ wanted so much to rescue and redeem his enemies that he became sin for their sake, a curse for their sake, and then simply offered his redemption as a gift, knowing full well that some wouldn’t want the full pardon and the steadfast love and the everlasting life, if it meant conceding their enemy status. Two thousand years later we are still stunned by the news and still haven’t figured out how to be a church that corresponds to its message. Because what could such a church be? Only a perpetual embarrassment. People selected chiefly on account of their disqualification to accomplish great things. A fellowship of such sinners that backbiting and betrayal are an inevitability. Ambassadors who constantly consider defecting to the other side. How can God expect to win more to His church with that kind of public relations campaign? Unless, of course, that is exactly the point." --->>You can read more at https://www.fbcmuncie.org/blog. For more information about messages in this series, or to find out more about First Baptist Church Muncie (FBCM), please see our website: fbcmuncie.org Our video live streams are available on our YouTube channel. Find a video library of past sermons on our church center channel. If you’re looking for a church home, or seeking information about the church, please submit a virtual visitor’s card. To financially support our ministry, please see our Church Center giving page. – Audio-Only Podcast Bumper Music is an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” by Dr. Clifton Davis, FBCM’s Worship Arts Pastor. First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana is a Spirit-led Community gathered to join Christ’s presence in our community. We gather at 309 East Adams Street, Muncie, Indiana, 47305, each week. Our worship service is at 10:45 a.m. Our current scriptural watchword for this season is “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). These message recordings are meant to be shared. Please rate us 5 stars on Spotify, Apple Music, or your podcasting app of choice and share with family and friends.

Advocacy In Action - John 14:8-17; 25-27 - Our Advocate

"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth." - from John 14:8-17; 25-27 "If only I had been there, and seen Jesus in the flesh myself, then it would be easy to trust him." Maybe you've had a thought like this before. If so, the Gospels may surprise you on reading how those who knew Jesus received him. Those who saw him, lived with him, and followed him in the flesh often seemed bewildered. They struggled with trust and faith as much as any of us living two thousand years later. At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus gives his famous "farewell discourse." His disciples do not understand what is happening, where Jesus is going, or why. But make no mistake, Jesus is not abandoning him. Just as they see the Father by seeing Jesus, so they are being given another Advocate: the Spirit of Truth. Or, as Paul refers to Spirit, "the Spirit of the Son" (Gal. 4:6). That means that Jesus is still with his disciples, and not just the disciples Jesus is speaking to in this passage of the Gospel. The Spirit of truth is given to followers today, as well as to the disciples then. Continuing reading at https://www.fbcmuncie.org/blog

Peacemakers - 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 - The Book of 1st Thessalonians

"Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else." - from 1 Thessalonians 5:12-28 Those who get payback or those who are peacemakers. We have a choice on which we will be. In a lecture on forgiveness and its limits, Elizabeth Bruenig described her two children fighting. They knew hitting each other was against the rules, punishable by the docking of allowance. But they also knew there was an exception: if you did not instigate or start the fight, that is, if you were acting in self-defense, you were not considered the aggressor. Your allowance would remain. After all, you had the right to defend yourself. But this led to a situation where, after every fight, both children claimed the other started it. Being unfairly attacked became a sought-after status. Elizabeth Bruenig began to wonder if adults behaved the same way: Consider the state of social media, where people frequently go in order to find something to be angry about, so that they can express their anger in ways that would typically be forbidden but are permissible in cases only of having been wronged. Had the social media user not sought out an example of someone doing something offensive or outrageous, they wouldn’t have anger to discharge, but it seems to me that acquiring anger and the right to discharge it is precisely the point. [emphasis mine] Sometimes, we want to be wronged, so we can do what we otherwise couldn't: pay back. It is this that the Apostle Paul tells us explicitly not to do. Continuing reading at https://www.fbcmuncie.org/blog For more information about messages in this series, or to find out more about First Baptist Church Muncie (FBCM), please see our website: fbcmuncie.org Our video live streams are available on our YouTube channel. Find a video library of past sermons on our church center channel. If you’re looking for a church home, or seeking information about the church, please submit a virtual visitor’s card. To financially support our ministry, please see our Church Center giving page. – Audio-Only Podcast Bumper Music is an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” by Dr. Clifton Davis, FBCM’s Worship Arts Pastor. First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana is a Spirit-led Community gathered to join Christ’s presence in our community. We gather at 309 East Adams Street, Muncie, Indiana, 47305, each week. Our worship service is at 10:45 a.m. Our current scriptural watchword for this season is “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). These message recordings are meant to be shared. Please rate us 5 stars on Spotify, Apple Music, or your podcasting app of choice and share with family and friends.

The Hopeful - 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11 - The Book Of 1st Thessalonians

“For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” -excerpt from 1 Thessalonians 4:13 - 5:11 I’ve never watched It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but my favorite meme comes from an episode where Charlie thinks he’s discovered a “major conspiracy.” It’s an older meme now, so you probably know what I’m talking about. There’s a picture of a typical office worker man. But upon further inspection, he has crazy eyes, a cigarette in one hand, and the other hand pointing behind him to a board covered in pictures, clues, and a red web of string that supposedly connects everything together in the conspiracy. It makes me laugh. Every. Time. Unfortunately, sometimes when people talk about scripture passages like 1 Thessalonians 4 or Revelation, they start to feel a little like this meme. They know Jesus is coming back. This is a GREAT thing! But they’ve gotten too caught up in trying to read the signs or figure out the details of when or how. And that’s when they’ve missed the point! 2,000 years after this letter, what are we supposed to learn from the Thessalonians about the end times or Jesus’ return? [Continuing reading at https://www.fbcmuncie.org/blog ] For more information about messages in this series, or to find out more about First Baptist Church Muncie (FBCM), please see our website: fbcmuncie.org Our video live streams are available on our YouTube channel. Find a video library of past sermons on our church center channel. If you’re looking for a church home, or seeking information about the church, please submit a virtual visitor’s card. To financially support our ministry, please see our Church Center giving page. – Audio-Only Podcast Bumper Music is an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” by Dr. Clifton Davis, FBCM’s Worship Arts Pastor. First Baptist Church, Muncie, Indiana is a Spirit-led Community gathered to join Christ’s presence in our community. We gather at 309 East Adams Street, Muncie, Indiana, 47305, each week. Our worship service is at 10:45 a.m. Our current scriptural watchword for this season is “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45). These message recordings are meant to be shared. Please rate us 5 stars on Spotify, Apple Music, or your podcasting app of choice and share with family and friends.