Going back a few years now, I have made it a habit to speak about gratitude during the week of Thanksgiving. I find thankfulness to be one of the more important virtues one can develop, one that is often overlooked and undervalued. When matured, gratitude becomes a superpower. It shifts our focus onto others, onto life’s blessings, and onto God’s abundance. To live with unceasing gratitude, as Paul calls us to in 1 Thessalonians, is to live a transformed life.
Jesus and our Past: Deen Salami, Guest Preacher
Teach Us to Pray: Lead Us
We have made it to the end of the Lord’s Prayer. Today we talk about the final line: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” There are some assumptions held within this line that speak volumes about Jesus’ expectations of us. The most important assumption is that if we are praying for God’s leading, it means we must be ready to follow. Is that part of your prayer life? Are you ready to follow wherever God may lead?
Teach Us to Pray: Forgive
We are nearing the end of our series on prayer with one final week after this one. Today we tackle the phrase: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Jesus connects the forgiveness we desire and receive from God to the forgiveness that flows out of us to those we encounter. We may not always think in these terms, and we may not like it, but there it is, sitting squarely within the Lord’s Prayer. If we’re going to talk about prayer, then we must talk about giving and receiving forgiveness. Let’s dive in.
Teach Us to Pray: Daily Bread
As we continue to look at the Lord’s Prayer, we once again ask that Jesus teach us to pray. Our focus today is the line, “Give us this day our daily bread.” What a beautiful image the Lord has given us. Daily bread. Not a feast or a banquet. Not a shopping cart filled with food that will last us weeks. Just today’s loaf. What Jesus is teaching us here is manifold and has a clear connection to what God was teaching Israel through daily manna in the wilderness. What this means for our 21st century modern life is not altogether different. Let us dive in.
Teach Us to Pray: Your Kingdom Come
"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus, who teaches us to pray this way, knows a thing or two about submitting to God’s will. On the night before his crucifixion, he cries out to God to keep him from death. But Jesus' desire to avoid crucifixion was surpassed by his desire to do the will of God, praying, “Not my will but yours.” In the moment of trouble, this is a hard saying, nevertheless it sits at the heart of what it means to believe or trust in God.
Teach Us to Pray: Hallowed Be Your Name
How is your prayer life these days? Have you begun to find a rhythm yet? Don’t worry, we’re just getting started, and we’ve got more weeks left to go. I hope this series encourages you to begin or continue a sustainable, regular prayer routine in your life. At the end of the day, that’s what this is all about. Putting into practice what we are learning in God’s Word. This week we turn to the second line of the Lord’s Prayer and ask, What would it mean for us to pray “Hallowed Be Your Name”? Let’s dive in.
Teach Us to Pray: Our Father
We are beginning a new year with a new emphasis, and there is no better way to begin than with prayer. I want to spend the coming weeks diving headlong into the why and the how of a prayer life in hopes that we as a church catch a vision for how God is going to move in our midst. While I desire an outpouring of spirit and power, I believe that the path to following God marches directly through our personal prayer lives and our corporate desire to seek God in the hidden places. If you’ll join me on this journey, I look forward to what God will do in our midst!
The Next 40 Years
Happy 40th Anniversary South Run Baptist Church! What a remarkable day. We are so glad that you have gathered with us this morning to celebrate what God has done in the four decades of our church’s life. We anticipate that God will continue to move in mighty ways, and this morning we set our sights not only on what has come before but the work that is left to be done.
Part 2: Equipping
Today we continue with the second of three sermons on our strategic plan. Last week we discussed prayer as this year’s cornerstone, and this week we introduce the importance of Equipping the Church in two ways: through regular Bible reading at home and through participation in a small group of some kind. There are lots of reasons why we chose these two elements, and our hope is that by the end of today, you see its value too. Let’s dive in!
Always Start with Prayer
For the next three Sundays, we are going to spend our Sunday mornings casting a vision for where we believe God is leading our congregation. Over the last months, the SRBC church council has spent a significant amount of time working on a strategic plan for the 2023-24 year, and I am excited to share with you the vision of what God has placed on our hearts. The plan is intentionally simple and, at its heart, is a call to return to what makes the church the church. The plan has three parts. This week we discuss part one: Always Start with Prayer.
The Next Day
Rev. W. Michael Bradley has served as a pastor in Northern Virginia and the surrounding area for 40 years. He is currently serving as the Associate Executive Director of NorthStar Church Network which serves over 170 churches by equipping, resourcing and encouraging churches to faithfully carry out the commission of Jesus to make disciples of all nations. He is passionate about expanding the Kingdom and making an eternal impact in Northern Virginia. Together, he and his wife Lois have raised 4 children and been married 41 years.
Galatians Week 17
We are in the final week of our series on Galatians, and Paul is giving his farewell address. Paul points us toward the essence of what he has been trying to say all along: we are meant for “new creation.” Transformation has been the goal all along, and this can only happen if we die to an old way of being and are raised to newness of life in Christ. Let’s dive into Galatians one last time!
Galatians Week 16
Paul returns to a spirit/flesh dichotomy and to an agricultural metaphor in Galatians chapter 6. “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Simply put, our actions, routines and habits form our character and our destiny. So what about you? What destiny is being formed right here and now through the choices of your life?
Galatians Week 15
In Galatians 6:1-5, Paul gives two commands. The first is to “bear one another’s burdens.” The second command is the near opposite: everyone must “bear one’s own load”. So which is it? Do we share our burdens or do we go it alone? Paul is getting at a deeper wisdom that recognizes the solution is both/and not either/or. Today our goal is to locate and begin to live out that which we are intended to carry alone and that which we are to bear with one another.
Galatians Week 14: The Fruit of the Spirit
Galatians Week 13
As we continue our reading through Galatians, we are well into chapter 5, and Paul is now contrasting walking by the “flesh” and being led by the “Spirit.” It can rightly be understood as a battle between two forces, and today we focus on the first of the two forces: what Paul means when he talks about the flesh. If we can understand this enemy combatant, then we can understand how it has already been defeated and therefore how to live in the freedom that Paul talks about throughout Galatians. Let’s dive in!
The Weightiness of Words
Bryan currently serves as the Executive Director of NorthStar Church Network. Prior to joining NorthStar, Bryan served for over 20 years in both senior pastor and associate pastor roles at several churches in the Northern Virginia area, including First Baptist Church of Alexandria. Bryan holds A.S. and B.S. degrees in Business, two masters degrees, and a Doctorate of Education in Leadership from Southern Seminary. Most importantly, Bryan greatly enjoys time with his wife Toni, and their three children, Brent, Austin, and Brianna. He and his family are members of FBC Alexandria.
Galatians Week 12
As Galatians continues, Paul remains concerned for the people of Galatia, that they keep Jesus and only Jesus at the center of their faith. It is not the keeping of the law that leads to union with God, it is Jesus’ righteousness. At this point, he then begins to build out an ethic based on Jesus’ example and the power of the Holy Spirit. Not surprisingly, it is an ethic that sounds exactly like what Jesus preached. The law is summed up in one word: love.
Galatians Week 11
We’ve taken a few months off from our deep-dive into the book of Galatians, but we’re back! Our summer series is going to resume (and finish) the book of Galatians, beginning in chapter 5. Here Paul is reminding us of much of what he has been saying from the beginning. Simply put: Jesus is enough. As the old hymn goes: “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.” May we find that Jesus is enough in our lives too.