Worship Service and Adult Sunday School messages from Wichita Falls Baptist Church
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Galatians 1:6-9
1 Peter 4:12-19
1 Peter 4:7-11 (Part 3) Synopsis
Revelation 2:18-29 Our culture calls us to be more tolerant. Jesus, in his letter to the Church at Thyatira, indicts them for their tolerance of sin within the church. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can't expect a lost and dying world to follow Christ in obedience, but we must demand it within the church. Intolerance of sin is a good thing. But the challenges are real. Keith Pond opens up what Jesus said within the Revelation to the church at Thyatira.
Revelation 2:12-17 As Jesus commends, convicts, and condemns the various churches of Asia Minor (western Turkey), he comes to Pergamum, a city high on the coast, a city steeped in paganism. The lessons of that church 2000 years ago are fresh for us today. We must continue to hold fast to Christ in faith despite intense persecution. And we must be wary of false teachers who will lead us on the slippery slope of immorality and idolatry. Jesus' promises of blessing and judgment for those who hear and those who do not should cause us to take note. Keith Pond explains.
1 Peter 4:9 Did you know that showing hospitality is not an option? God calls us to show hospitality so that we might lavish his love on others as he has lavished his love upon us. Pastor Mollenkopf challenges the church with that truth this morning.
1 Peter 4:7-11 Christ’s victory ushered us into the final stage of God’s redemption plan. Because of this, the demonic realm rages against us (4:1-6). To withstand the onslaught and the certain suffering, we must fight together through prayer, loving relationships, hospitality, and serving one another. Pastor Mollenkopf walks us through this importan passage in Peter's first letter.
1 Peter 4:1-6 Christ’s death assures our eternal victory, but until that we breathe our last, we will and must fight against sin. Yes, we will be mocked and ridiculed, but if we look no different than the world, the like truth is that we are no different from the world and do not know Christ as Savior. Pastor Mollenkopf explains.
1 Peter 3:18-22 We will suffer. But Christ has suffered for us that we might know that our suffering has purpose in this life. We can know that our suffering will lead to blessing because Christ has blessed and and continues to bless us through his perfect suffering for our sin.
Peter wants to prepare his readers to suffer for Christ because of our sure our hope in Him. While suffering is a certainty, we can know that God has good purpose behind these challenges we are sure to face. Peter's point is that our knowing Christ as Lord and as God prepares us to suffer for Him.
Daniel Mollenkopf turns to the minor prophet, Nahum, to help us understand that God in not idle in the events of men.
Is the husband's leadership in marriage patriarchal and outdated? What does the Bible say? Today, Pastor Mollenkopf examines how Peter calls husbands to seek to know and honor their wives.
Peter has been giving various areas in which we submit to God by submitting to God’s leaders that He has put over us. Having discussed submitting to government and masters, he now turns to marriage. In this, he specifically looks at the situation of a Christian woman married to an unbeliever. Peter says, “wives, seek your husband’s salvation by seeking to be beautiful.”
Keith Pond continues his walk through Jesus' letters to the Churches of the Revelation by looking today at the suffering endured by the saints at Smyrna, modern day Izmir, Turkey. They were promised that Satan was gunning for them while they were already dealing with tribulation, poverty, and slander from those who professed to follow God. How could they endure more? Only through the encouragement and presence of their Savior. [NOTE: Due to a technical difficulty, the audio will begin three minutes into the introduction.]
Peter wants us to know that when suffer because of our faithfulness to Christ, God is well pleased and honors us for our willing to follow in Christ’s suffering footsteps. Pastor Mollenkopf opens up this rich passage to the saints.
Social media outlets in our country have become places of toxic animosity, left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal/progressive, and often the target of our loathing is whomever is in power. Legislators, governors, jurists, presidents--all receive the venom of their opponents. But is that how Christians should conduct themselves in relation to those who have authority over our lives? And do they really have authority over our lives? Pastor Mollenkopf highlights how Christians ought to conduct themselves regarding those who are in leadership over us.
Hundreds of years before the execution and resurrection of Jesus Christ, Isaiah proclaims that our only hope is in the coming Servant of God, and One who shocks us because he does not fit int our mold of what a Savior should be. Pastor Mollenkopf opens up Isaiah 52 and 53 for us on this Resurrection Sunday.
In Jesus' first letter to the Churches of Asia Minor, he commends the Church at Ephesus for enduring suffering patiently and standing against evil, even testing the teaching they are receiving and rejecting false teachers. At the same time, the Lord calls them out for the cooling of their love and affection for the Savior. So great is this loss of love that it threatens the very life of their church. Keith Pond explains why Jesus is so passionate that the Church at Ephesus would hear what God says to the churches.
What label do you wear? To what labels do you aspire? And your identity: who determines who you are or your makeup? Delighting in being God’s chosen people, grounds us in dealing with being the rejects of the world. Pastor Mollenkopf delves into 1 Peter 2.
Christ was rejected. Peter witnessed it first hand, and despite his professions and protestations, Peter denied his Lord and Savior three times. And despite--no, because of his past--Peter wants us to know that pursuing God, anchoring in Christ, holding fast to the truth, will help us stand firm, unmovable, in the face of worldly rejection. Pastor Mollenkopf explains.
In this morning's exposition of God's word, Pastor Mollenkopf highlights how Peter continues to expand on the manner in which we should live in God’s family as his born again children. In 1 Peter 2:1-3, he calls us to long for our brother and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We see sin as sin because God's word makes it plain. But if we have no interest in our brothers and sisters in Christ, is that not sin, too? Jesus came to purify us not only so that we would personally know the joy of feeling clean and pure, but also to love His body, the church. Pastor Mollenkopf opens up Peter's first epistle describing God's demand for us to love one another.
Peter writes that God’s children should live with hope, holiness, and fear as we wait Christ’s return. Straight up. Pastor Mollenkopf explains.
In Part 2 of his introduction to his sermon series, "The Seven Letters of the Revelation," Keith Pond the spectacular differences between the glorified Christ and the Son of God who walked the Earth with his friend John some sixty-plus years earlier. Jesus commands his apostle-friend to write seven letters and send them to seven churches in Asia Minor. Follow along to find how this bears on us in our lives today.
This morning, Keith Pond introduces Jesus' seven letters to the churches of Asia Minor by walking through the first half of Revelation 1. Why is God so intent on his creatures hearing his voice and heeding his word? The apostle John points us to the glory and wonder of hearing the God of the cosmos calling us to hear him and to follow hard after him.
