First Baptist Church Thomson, Ga

In this sermon, we discover Satan's three-fold strategy to steal, kill, and destroy. We identify the flaming arrows he shoots to attempt to steal God's Word from our hearts, kill the fruit and work of God in our lives, and destroy our witness. And we see how the shield of faith protects us from each of these attacks.

The Helmet of Salvation protects us in similar ways as the Belt of Truth and the Breastplate of Righteousness. We need to protect our mind from Satan’s deceiving lies and false teachings—it is after all a helmet meant to protect the head. But it specifically deals with our salvation, which like the Breastplate of Righteousness, assures us against Satan’s accusations meant to discourage us and cause us to doubt our relationship with God and our usability to Him and His Kingdom. So the Helmet of Salvation further protects us against both of these schemes of the Devil, but in a different way.

Shoes go with readiness, and for soldiers they are vital parts of their armor, enabling them to stand their ground in combat and move forward their objectives on the battle field. As Christians, God has given us Gospel shoes--to make us ready to stand and to go, to make our feet beautiful as we share the Good News of God's peace.

Continuing to look at the Full Armor of God, given to us so we can withstand Satan's attacks and resist his schemes, we turn from what seems like the least coverage—the belt—to what appears to offer the most coverage, the breastplate. We will discover how the Breastplate of Righteousness can guard our hearts from the accusations of the Devil, who wants Christians to live defeated and discouraged lives.

The first piece of the Full Armor God that Paul presents is the belt of truth. Belts may not seem like a vital piece of armor, but the belt is what holds the rest of the pieces together. It is what the sword and shield hang on. Truth is what all the parts of our spiritual armor hang on. It is what holds us and our faith together. We need the Belt of Truth to help us stand firm against Satan's scheme to deceive our minds and seduce our hearts.

The United States Army has four pillars for combat-readiness; four things necessary to be fully prepared for war: Manning, Training, Equipping, and Leader Development. In Ephesians 6:10-13, Paul gives Christians our own Four Pillars of Readiness. As we identify these pillars, let us evaluate ourselves—Are we combat-ready for the spiritual battles we face every day?

From local lowly shepherds to royal wise men from afar, to the heavenly host, as we think about the worshipful response of God’s coming into the world to redeem lost sinners, let’s think this morning about some basic truths of worship. Just as it’s easy for the message of Christ’s birth to get lost amidst the tinsel and trees, the gifts and parties of Christmas…so it is easy for us throughout the year to let the truth about biblical worship to get lost among the musical styles, traditions, and preferences of our worship services.

Advent is as much about preparing ourselves for Jesus' Second Coming as it is celebrating His first. Peter tells us that "the end of all things is near," and gives us five actions we should embrace to help prepare ourselves for the Second Coming of our King. These are spiritual marks of readiness. Which do you need to focus on this Advent?

Hebrews 11, called the “Hall of Faith” chapter, details the stories of the deeds of faith-filled men and women, but the focus is on WHY they did what they did. Their motivation, priority, and nonnegotiable was faith in God’s promises. As we think of having faith in God's promise for the Newborn King and all He would accomplish, let's look at the essence of faith and how we can exercise our faith in King Jesus.

On this first Sunday of Advent, we look at Isaiah 9:1-7, where the prophet was speaking words of hope to the people of Judah who were facing God's judgment for their wickedness. They were walking in darkness, feeling hopeless and helpless. But Isaiah promised that their King was coming, who bring light into darkness and bring them from gloom into joy.

James calls us to look out for one another as we struggle, stumble, and sometimes fall. Out of the overflow of God’s mercy in our lives, we should mercifully get in each other’s way, and turn one another back when we begin to drift off course.

James has been called the "Proverbs" of the New Testament. James helps us focus our faith into practical ways to live. However, James' next topic is something too many people consider as impractical--prayer. What they fail to see is that prayer is one of the most powerful things we can do. when we pray in faith, seeking God's Will to be done, the Lord hears and responds. Prayer should be the first way we put our faith to work. In today’s passage, James gives us some practical principles for powerful prayer.

James' original audience felt they were living in the last days. It was a time of uncertainty, fraught with dangers and difficulties, and it seemed as if things couldn’t get worse. 2,000 years later, we often wonder the same thing! As we face uncertain times, concerned about our own current difficulties and potential dangers, we wonder if these are the last days. How are we to live in uncertain times? How should we live in light of the fact that Jesus will return at a time we won't expect? How can we live knowing that any day could be our last on this earth? James shares 3 essential qualities we must possess to live well in the last days.

James challenges our worldly perspectives on wealth--is it good or bad or neither? Are money and possessions for our enjoyment and benefit or for the good of others and the pursuit of God's Kingdom? James offers a word of stern warning, assesses the real worth of our "stuff", and gives us an audit of our practices in how we view and handle wealth.

In today's passage, James links his themes of Faith and Humility to help us rightly understand Who is in charge of our lives. James specifically deals with two areas that are transformed when we humbly trust God to be in charge: how we speak to about each other, and how we plan for the future.

How do we resist our sinful, fleshly impulses? How can we break-up with the world and devote ourselves wholly to friendship with God? There is nothing we can do to earn or muster such a fellowship with God. But in His grace, God enables us to have a deepening relationship with Him. James outlines four ways we can embrace a friendship with God that transforms our lives.

Rev. Ben Tarver begins James 4 with a look at James's warning to us about not being friends with the world. He describes an inner war that rages within us and among us as we follow sinful worldly desires that never fulfill.

Who do you consider as wise? Where do you go for direction, guidance, and truth? James gives us a litmus test to see if the "wisdom" we have is true, godly wisdom or false worldly wisdom. I pray you’ll use James’s litmus test to evaluate what kind of wisdom are you pursuing? What are you building your life on? The solid rock of Christ’s wisdom, or the shifting sands of worldly philosophy?

Throughout his letter, James focuses on three tests of faith: how we talk, how we live, and how we serve others. In James 3:1-2, he turns his full focus on controlling our tongues. Of all the ways in which we need discipline and self-control, we need none so much as in watching our words.

James makes his closing arguments for why a deedless faith is dead, and only a fruitful faith that works can be saving faith. He points us to two key witnesses: Abraham and Rahab. We will discover in this message that Paul and James are in complete agreement on the nature of salvation and how faith works together with our actions to produce growing followers of Jesus.