Baptism Sunday

Grace Community Church of Topsail

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Baptism Sunday

May 19, 2024 • Steve Marshall

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God instituted baptism so that you could understand more clearly the promises of the gospel. Baptism is meant to bring Christ’s death and resurrection into your daily reality. Seeing other’s baptism and remembering your own is to physically reenact the drama of the gospel story. Baptism reminds you that you have been united with Christ, buried with Him under the waters of baptism before rising again out of the water to a new life (Rom. 6:3-4). We are all called to reenact the story of baptism, not just to remember it but to make it our own (Mat. 28:19-20). By remembering, you make the benefits of Christ’s death your own. The past becomes a present reality and you are assured of the forgiveness of your sins. Baptism is meant to imprint God’s promises on your heart and confirm that you have been given endless grace in salvation through Jesus Christ. Martin Luther once said, “A Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism.” Meaning that baptism is a template for Christian living – daily dying to self, daily being resurrected new to Christ.

Biblical Eldership: Who, What, Why?

May 26, 2024 • Steve Marshall

An elder is on the same level ground with every other believer before Jesus Christ, having the same and yet added responsibilities. In the New Testament elders are also referred as pastors or overseers. So, biblically, an elder is a pastor is an overseer and according to the New Testament, elders are responsible for the primary leadership and oversight of a church. Elders are called to lead the church (1 Tim. 5-7; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 5:1-2), teach and preach God’s Word (1 Tim. 3:2; 2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:9), protect the church from false teachers (Acts 20:17-31), exhort and admonish the church in sound doctrine (1 Tim. 4:13; 2 Tim 3:13-17; 1Titus 1:9), visit the sick and pray (James 5:14; Acts 6:4), and judge doctrinal issues (Acts 15:6). In biblical vocabulary, elders shepherd, oversee, lead, and care for the local church.

A Mother's Love

May 12, 2024 • Steve Marshall

"There is no emotion so completely unselfish as maternal affection. Conjugal love expects the return of many kindnesses and attentions. Filial love expects parental care, or is helped by the memory of past watchfulness. But the strength of a mother’s love is entirely independent of the past and the future, and is, of all emotions, the purest. The child has done nothing in the past to earn kindness, and in the future it may grow up to maltreat its parent; but still from the mother’s heart there goes forth inconsumable affection. Abuse cannot offend it; Neglect cannot chill it; Time cannot efface it; Death cannot destroy it. For harsh words it has gentle chiding; For the blow it has beneficent ministry; For neglect it has increasing watchfulness. It weeps at the prison door over the incarcerated prodigal, and pleads for pardon at the Governor’s feet, and is forced away by compassionate friends from witnessing the struggles of the gallows. Other lights go out, but this burns on without extinguishment, as in a gloom-struck night you may see a single star, one of God’s pickets, with gleaming bayonet of light guarding the outposts of heaven. Oh, despise not a mother’s love. If heretofore you have been negligent of such a one, and you have still opportunity for reparation, make haste. If you could only just look in for an hour’s visit to her you would rouse up in the aged one a whole world of blissful memories." - DeWitt Talmage

In Jesus' Name, Amen?

May 5, 2024 • John 14, John 15, John 16

What does it mean to pray “In Jesus’ Name”? Does simply stating “in Jesus’ name” at the end of my prayer mean that I’m praying in Jesus’ name? Certainly not, for I probably shouldn’t pray “In Jesus’ name, give me Lamborghini”. It shouldn’t be a phrase that we tag on to the end of our prayers as some sort of spiritual seasoning to convince God to give us what we want. Or to put it a different way, it shouldn’t be a magical phrase that fits the prayer formula that Christ gave us in order to be heard by Him. To pray “in Jesus’ name” is to pray “by His reputation”. It’s to pray for His sake, not our own. It’s to pray with His priorities in mind, not our own. It’s to pray according to His will (1 John 5:14). It’s to pray on the basis of what He has already done to bring us close to God, and not on our own efforts to bring ourselves close to God. It’s to pray trusting in his wisdom and understanding and not our own. It’s to submit our whole being to Him in prayer, content that whatever the outcome of our prayer it will be for our good and for His glory. To pray “in Jesus’ name” means to entrust ourselves to His sovereign plan and will for our lives.