My wife was an excellent host or hostess when we would have a meal like let's say Thanksgiving she would make sure that everyone had a place setting and a seat at a table and Even at the last minute if we had additional guests or not people we invited late She would bring in additional tables and chairs to make sure everyone had a place to sit not …

It seems in today's world pronouns have come into great controversy, but in simplest level when I'm talking about myself me, I use a word I, me, my. If I'm talking about somebody who's not in my presence I will usually use he or she. So for instance if somebody's not in my presence I go he's a nice young man or she's going to graduate college. I'm …

A few years ago, my wife and I and some founding members took a trip to Boston. But before we went, my wife booked a travel, I mean a tour guide. And that tour guide took us around Boston to certain historical points and other points of interest. And he was able to do so because he knew the city and he knew about the various points of interest and …

We are taking a serious look at Psalm 23. The first verse the psalmist talked about that the Lord is His shepherd and hopefully He is our shepherd as well. But on the next three verses he's going to talk about the benefits of the Lord being His shepherd. We're going to take a look at the first verse of those three verses to see the provision that G…

I want you to imagine, or maybe you actually are, a classic piano player. The first time anybody heard you play any music, it was this classical music. But yet you had the same kind of talent in other musical instruments and even in your voice. So perhaps you were an outstanding guitar player as well as a singer. But every time people saw you, they…

I want you to imagine you might have been in this situation. You're a salesman and your sales have been trending down. Or perhaps you're in the machine shop and your widgets, many of them are having to be scrapped. And then you get a note from the owner of the business that says that they want to see you at the end of the day. I would pretty much i…

There was a man named Saul who was later his name changed was Paul wrote a letter to the church at Philippine and he said that he had great confidence in who he was and what he had accomplished. And yet he makes a very strange comparison to that. Great work that he had done and the significance of who he was. And that balance between that and havin…

Most Christians think that worship comprised of going to church, singing some worship songs, and in some traditions raising your hands while you're singing them. Some who feel even more spiritual sing worship songs while they're at home or in the car. However, the Bible talks more of worship in a broader sense than just praising God with our voices…

The Bible discusses a topic, especially in the book of Job, that you've probably observed in your life. That good things happen to good people, bad things happen to good people, good things happen to bad people, and bad things happen to bad people, as well as good. However, the Scriptures talk about another group of people and the promise that God …

When public prayer and private prayer was removed from public school, many religious people's response was, "There will always be prayer in school as long as there are tests." The reason for that is that people usually pray when there's a felt need, and the stronger the felt need, the more fervent the prayer. So for instance, even in a combat situa…

Unfortunately, we are very politically divided, so this example I'm going to suggest that whoever happens to be the president is a person you voted for and supported. But let's say this person just was inaugurated, and then you get contacted shortly thereafter that they want to meet you, but not only do they want to meet you, they want to meet you …

The Roman Empire developed a mechanism to execute people. It was called crucifixion. It was a cruel, painful, and shameful way to die. But that's how they treated their criminals, their insurrectionists, and anybody else who might defy them. Almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus was crucified. But he wasn't crucified as a criminal. Even the one who judged …

You will frequently hear parents say that they want their children to be happy. Well, the Father in heaven wants more than your happiness. As a matter of fact, He wants not only for your happiness, but it was something greater than that and it is His will. Come and listen to what the Father's will is for your life that is greater than happiness.Ser…

There seems to be today a overburden of anxiety. People are anxious for personal things like finance or health or family situations. Other people are anxious because of climate change or overpopulation or whatever the worldwide problem might be. There seems to be a lot of self-help books on how to deal with anxiety, but they don't seem to help. I e…

Knowledge is a wonderful thing. We know what we know. There are times that we know what we don't know. And unfortunately, there are times when we don't know what we don't know. John is going to write a letter to believers about eternal life. He's going to tell us something that we can know, but unfortunately, many believers don't know that they kno…

You've probably heard it said, or maybe you've even said it yourself, "Don't judge me." Someone says that usually because they're pretty sure that the outcome of that judgment is negative, that for some reason that they didn't act or say the right things and don't want to hear that condemnation. The Scripture is going to talk about two different ty…

Some of those popular books and bookshops are self-help books. People are always trying to improve their lives, whether it's to become rich, to influence friends, become, make friends. There's always people seeming to want to better their lives. However, they rarely talk about and look at how to live and be righteous. There is a book that talks abo…

There are a couple of common expressions about circumstances. One is keeping up with the Joneses. There's a sense of our circumstances being at least the same as someone else. The other common expression is, "I complained that I had no shoes until I saw a person with no feet." That's an attempt to say that we feel bitter about ourselves because our…

Jesus is going to ask Peter the same question three times. We're going to see that there's a lot of discussion about why Jesus did that, but very little discussion on why it was important for you and me. So let us see what Jesus asked Peter and the question we should ask ourselves.John 21:15 Jesus asks Peter do you love Me and Peter answers Yes. Je…

The Gospel of John records four different occasions when Jesus appears as the resurrected one. Three times he appears with his disciples. This time it's substantially different from the other times that John records. Come see what the difference is when the disciples have breakfast with the risen one.Sermon NotesJohn 21:1 Jesus appears to His disci…

There is a common expression, "seeing is believing," but when Thomas was told by his fellow disciples that they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe but said, "Not only must I see, but I must touch the wounds that he had." Jesus will later tell Thomas that there are certain benefits by believing but not seeing. Let's see what Jesus talks about …

Scriptures tell us that he rises from the dead and there are other scriptures so we have reasons. So no I was not there to see the empty tomb myself and I have yet to see it but I believe those who have seen it and I believe those who have written of it and I believe that the word of God has demonstrated he has risen from the dead and that his spir…

Why do Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah? Many people who aren't followers think, "Well, it's just blind faith." We disagree. Our faith is based on the scriptures and historic events. In a couple weeks, we'll be talking about the major event that happened that causes most people to say that's why they believe that Jesus i…

The Roman Empire crucified thousands of people. They also were involved in the crucifixion of Jesus. But the crucifixion of Jesus was different in many ways. I invite you to come and listen to this message on how the crucifixion of Jesus was different and how it impacts you.Sermon NotesJohn 19:17 Jesus bears His own crossJohn 19:18 He was crucified…

From the time that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, the people who arrested him bound him and led him to Annas' house. They were seeking to assert control and authority over Jesus. It's interesting, trying to assert control and authority over the Son of God.When Jesus fails to immediately answer one of Pilate's questions, Pilate says…

The religious leaders take Jesus to Pilate who is a Roman governor to authorize his crucifixion. During that time Pilate and Jesus have a conversation about his kingdom and his kingship, but during that conversation Pilate deflects by asking a question. He doesn't care really about the answer to the question because he doesn't spend any time to lis…

Today's message, we're going to take a look at Peter and his denial of his Lord. It would be easy, and it is easy, to quickly judge Peter for those failures. But sometimes, even though Peter had told Jesus that he'd be willing to die for him, we'll take a look at maybe sometimes it is easier to die for Christ than to live for him. But also, what we…

There are times in our lives when we may face circumstances when we truly wonder whether God is in control and can solve our problems. Jesus is going to show a situation where his betrayal and his seizure is such that he is not a victim, but he is in control. And not only to make sure that God's purposes are accomplished, but he protects his own. C…

We're going to continue looking at how Jesus was praying for His disciples that were present with Him. He's going to continue to do that, but He's going to make a surprising prayer request for future disciples, which means He's going to pray for you and me. Come and see what His prayer requests are for you and me.Proclamation of the WordMessage by …

Jesus would frequently throughout the scriptures go by himself and pray. His disciples asked him to teach them how to pray and we call that teaching the Lord's Prayer, although that's not really what it was, it's the disciples prayer. We only have two or three opportunities in the scriptures to see Jesus's actual prayer. One was when he was praying…

We celebrate what most of the world calls Easter or some called resurrection Sunday. I happen to call first verse but that's for a different time. The fact that Jesus rose from the dead is essential to the Christian faith. If he did not raise from the dead then our faith is in vain and the scripture says that. There are a number of people who have …

Palm Sunday. All those universally Christian churches on this day will celebrate Palm Sunday and as a part of that celebration will read or preach on what is called the triumphal entry. I want to take a little departure from that. I think that was an important entry by Jesus into Jerusalem but I think there is another real triumphal entry. Come and…

While heading to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is going to be talking to his disciples and figurative language initially about his death and resurrection. He tells them that their reaction is going to be very different than the world's reaction, but their reaction is only going to be temporary and eventually their change reaction will be permanen…

There are times when we've all experienced situations where we don't feel comfortable or we're feeling like we're not really welcomed. Jesus is going to tell his disciples that not only they're not going to be welcome, but they're going to be hated. And he's going to explain why they're going to be hated and what the world is going to be reacting t…

There are times when we've all experienced situations where we don't feel comfortable or we're feeling like we're not really welcomed. Jesus is going to tell his disciples that not only they're not going to be welcome, but they're going to be hated. And he's going to explain why they're going to be hated and what the world is going to be reacting t…

If you knew you were going to die within a few hours, or that you were to take a trip that you were going to be gone for a long time, and your loved ones and the people you cared about were gathered around you, what would you talk about? I suspect it would not be the weather or some other inconsequential things that you would talk about things that…

Sermon NotesJohn 15:1 Jesus is the true vine and the Father is the vinedresserJohn 15:2 Branches that do not produce fruit are taken away. Branches that produce fruit are pruned so that more fruit may be producedJohn 15:3 The branches are already clean due to the word of JesusJohn 15:4 & 5 The key to producing fruit is living in Jesus and Jesus liv…

Sermon NotesJohn 14:16 & 17 Jesus will ask the Father to give us the Holy Spirit as a HelperJohn 14:18 – 20 Jesus did not leave them or us as orphans He will come to us?John 14:21 Loving Jesus is not words but obeying HimJohn 14:22 The question what has happened that Jesus is not going to disclose Himself to the worldJohn 14:23 & 24 Jesus does not …

Proclamation of the WordMessage by Pastor JoeSermon NotesJohn 14:7 Seeing Jesus is seeing the FatherJohn 14:8 Philip asks for Jesus to show them the FatherJohn 14:9 – 10 Jesus’ response to that requestJohn 14:11 Jesus say believe Him or believe the works He has doneJohn 14:12 Whoever believes in Jesus will do greater works than Jesus didJohn 14:13 …

Proclamation of the WordMessage by Pastor JoeSermon NotesJohn 14:1 Believe in God and in JesusJohn 14:2 & 3 In the Father’s house are many dwelling places and Jesus goes not only to prepare a place for us, but to come again and takes us to HimJohn 14:4 & 5 Jesus tells them they know where He is going, but they say they do notJohn 14:6 & 7 Jesus is …

Proclamation of the WordMessage by Pastor JoeSermon NotesJohn 13:34 A new commandmentMatthew 22:34 – 40 The two greatest commandmentsJohn 13:35 How the world knows that we are Hisעל ידי First Baptist Church of Westminster, California

588 FBCWest | Betrayal and Denial by First Baptist Church of Westminster, Californiaעל ידי First Baptist Church of Westminster, California

It is common to have to teach somebody a particular thing several times before they get it. When Jesus celebrates a Passover which is the last Passover he will celebrate with his disciples here on earth, what we call the Last Supper, Jesus is going to teach them, but he's going to do it in a unique fashion. He's going to teach them by an example, a…

During Jesus' earthly ministry, it's not unlike today. There were those who believed, but many did not or could not believe. There were others who believed but did not confess. Jesus said that He came into the world not to judge the world but to save it. But He does tell us there is something that we'll judge. Come and listen to what that has to be…

Now that we're in the Advent or Christmas season, we're going to take a look at Matthew's Gospel talking about the events that took place after Jesus's birth. It's interesting that in our culture we have a number of traditions. Some of those traditions aren't exactly what the Scriptures say, so we're going to take a look at that. But what I'm going…

As Jesus is in Jerusalem, He's going to be confronted with a decision that will change history one way or the other. But He makes His decision based on a particular principle. Now there are times when we are faced with critical decisions that may not change history but will probably change the course of our lives. I think it would be good to see wh…

There are a lot of people who will give you different advice on how to live a wonderful, valuable life. Some people will tell you that you should have as much fun as you can. Others will say get as much fame or fortune or power as you can. Jesus has a very different approach to this than advice. Come listen to what Jesus has to say about life and h…

Tradition, some people dislike it, want to eliminate all tradition. Other people will hold on tradition whether there's any real reason to have it or not. There's a lot of tradition that has been involved around the triumphal entry of what we call Palm Sunday and the Passion Week. Let's take a look at that tradition and to see what's actual and wha…

There are times when people give an extravagant offering or a gift. They don't see many of those, but when they do happen, oftentimes the gift giver. And the gift is criticized by others. We're going to see such an incidence in the life of Jesus and his ministry. Let's see what the offering is, what the criticism is and what Jesus and response to i…

Proclamation of the WordMessage by Pastor JoeSermon NotesJohn 11:47 & 48 Priests and Pharisees convene a Council about Jesus because they were concerned about their placeJohn 11:49 & 50 Caiaphas the High Priest states it is expedient for one man to dieJohn 11:51 – 53 An explanation of the statementJohn 11:54 – 57 Jesus stays out of Jerusalem until …