Eastland Baptist Messages

Is thankfulness a feeling we visit in November, or a way of life that shapes how we treat one another? In Colossians 3:15-17, Pastor Ben shows that three commands are each sustained by gratitude: let the peace of Christ rule in our relationships, let the word of Christ teach and admonish us, and let the authority of Christ govern every word and deed. Because believers already possess everything in...

Most of us keep calendars, set goals and map out the week ahead, but how often do we make those plans without acknowledging the One who gives us life? In James 4:13-17, Pastor Calabrese examines believers who planned their travel, their business and even their profits while forgetting that they could not see past today. Planning is not wrong; the problem is planning as though we were in control of...

Most of us would say we trust God, but what else are we quietly leaning on? Career, finances, reputation and the people we know can all become foundations that give way the moment pressure comes. In Psalm 62, David writes from a time of betrayal and upheaval, likely while fleeing his own son Absalom. Before he pauses (Selah), David can only say he will not be greatly moved; after considering who G...

Are we more interested in what God gives us or in knowing the God who gives? In an entitled age, believers can tear through blessings like presents on a birthday, counting what they missed instead of thanking the One who gave. Preaching from Psalm 107, Pastor Joshua shows that goodness is not merely what God does but who He is, a character no circumstance can change. Through the psalm's wanderers,...

Why is it so easy to see the flaws in a fellow believer and so hard to see our own? In James 4:11-12, Pastor Dorrell confronts the critical spirit that turns church family into defendants and ourselves into judges. Drawing on the royal law of James 2:8, he shows that gossip and condemning speech reveal the condition of our own hearts and set us above God's command to love our neighbor. Discernment...

Anyone can look the part for two hours on Sunday morning. But what happens on the drive home, behind the front door, or at work on Monday? In Colossians 3:17–4:1, Pastor Dorrell shows how Paul moves straight from the character of the new man into the living room and the workplace. Wives honor the Lord through respect, husbands lead with Christlike love free of bitterness, children obey because it...

Is a church picnic merely fun after the real ministry is over, or something more? Many believers quietly divide life into spiritual activities and everything else. Preaching on the morning of the church's fall festival, Pastor Dorrell turns to Joshua 4, where God commanded twelve memorial stones so children would one day ask what the Lord had done. Drawing also from Acts 2 and Colossians 2, he sho...

Can a person change their habits without changing their heart? It is possible to learn religious language, attend church faithfully, and still be ruled by pride, bitterness, and anger. In Colossians 3:10-17, Paul shows that the Christian life is not a fresh coat of paint on a rotten fence but a new identity worked from the inside out. Because believers have put on the new man, renewed by the Word...

Why do we complain so easily and give thanks so rarely, even after God has answered the very prayers we once prayed? Opening a five-part series on Thanksgiving, Pastor Dorrell turns to Colossians 2:6-7 and confronts grumbling as more than a harmless habit: it is spiritual forgetfulness and a quiet accusation against God's goodness. Biblical thanksgiving is rooted in what Christ has already done, e...

Why do the same arguments keep erupting at the kitchen table, in the car, and at church, no matter how often the circumstances change? Preaching from James 4:1-10, Pastor Dorrell confronts our instinct to blame the people around us and traces conflict to its real source: runaway desires warring within the heart. He shows how selfish wanting turns into frustration, unmet expectations, and prayers a...

Why do so many believers who know they are forgiven still give quiet room to lust, greed, bitter words, and half-truths? In this message from Colossians 3:5-9, Pastor Dorrell examines Paul's call to mortify the appetites of the old nature and put off anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy speech, and lying. Because the believer has died and risen with Christ, the old version is gone, and no Christi...

Why do so many good commitments, to church, marriage, ministry, or work, quietly collapse the moment they become difficult? In this message from 1 Kings 19:19-21, Pastor Dorrell examines the calling of Elisha, a prosperous farmer who answered Elijah's mantle by slaughtering his oxen, burning his plowing equipment, and giving the meat away. By destroying his means of return, Elisha secured his dedi...

Why does a generation with more information than any before still struggle to raise children, manage money, and keep relationships whole? In this message from James 3:13-18, Pastor Dorrell confronts the gap between knowledge and wisdom, showing that true wisdom is proven not by what we say but by how we live. Earthly wisdom, rooted in envy and self-interest and often dressed up as savvy cultural a...

Why do so many believers know they belong to Christ yet keep living at the mercy of their feelings, frustrations, and old habits? In this message from Colossians 3:1-4, Pastor Dorrell shows that Paul begins with identity before conduct: the believer has died, been raised, and now has a life hidden with Christ in God. Because that union is real rather than metaphorical, Christians are called to see...

What happens when a faithful servant reaches the end of himself? Fresh from fire on Mount Carmel, Elijah sits alone under a juniper tree, praying to die. Preaching from 1 Kings 19, Pastor Andrew Calabrese shows how God meets His weary prophet with food and rest, speaks to him in a still small voice, and reveals a work far larger than Elijah could see. Using a poster board with a small window cut t...

Talk may be cheap, but are our words ever truly harmless? Preaching from James 3:1-12, Pastor Dorrell examines the disproportionate power of the tongue: a small bit that turns a horse, a small helm that steers a ship, a single spark that sets a forest ablaze. He confronts the hypocrisy of blessing God while cursing people made in His image, and he applies James's warning to the words we type and p...

Why do sincere believers so often rest their security on rules, tribes, and checklists rather than on Christ? Preaching from Colossians 2:16-23, Pastor Dorrell examines how self-appointed spiritual umpires in Colossae turned dietary laws and holy days into tests of belonging. Paul calls these things a shadow; the substance is Christ. The sermon confronts two opposite ditches: a legalism and author...

Are you trying to keep one foot in God's kingdom and one foot in the world? Many believers affirm the Lord on Sunday while quietly trusting the culture for security, approval, and moral direction. Pastor Dorrell examines 1 Kings 18:17-40, where Elijah confronts a nation limping between Yahweh and Baal and calls them to decision on Mount Carmel. He illuminates the powerlessness of the world's idols...

Can a person claim faith in Christ while nothing about their life ever changes? Many assume that correct doctrine and a sincere profession are proof enough of salvation. Pastor Dorrell examines James 2:14-26, where James confronts an empty confession that offers words without deeds and that believes the facts yet refuses to surrender. Through the examples of Abraham and Rahab, he shows how Paul an...

Why do so many believers who hold the riches of Christ still live as if they need something more to be whole? Preaching from Colossians 2:1-15, Pastor Dorrell confronts the "Jesus plus" mindset: the quiet belief that Christ saves us for eternity, but daily life also takes wealth, political ideology, therapeutic self-help, or man-made standards. He shows that all the treasures of wisdom and knowled...

How does a believer stay faithful while working inside a hostile, corrupt system? Examining the account of Obadiah before Elijah's showdown on Mount Carmel, Pastor Dorrell illuminates how this quiet official risked his life hiding a hundred prophets while serving in wicked King Ahab's court. He shows that Obadiah's courage was not the absence of fear but trembling obedience anyway, and that God st...

Why do we instinctively size people up by their clothes, income, or influence before we ever get to know them? Examining James 2, Pastor Dorrell confronts the sin of favoritism, showing how welcoming the wealthy while dismissing the poor contradicts genuine faith in Christ. He illuminates James's teaching that God's economy inverts the world's, choosing the poor to be rich in faith, and calls beli...

What does it mean to truly let Christ rule every corner of your life, not just your Sunday mornings? Continuing through Colossians, Pastor Dorrell examines Christ's headship over the church and the believer, showing how His preeminence as Creator, Savior, and Sustainer secures our hope even amid a world of shifting truth and uncertainty. He confronts the tendency to compartmentalize faith, reservi...

Why do good, faithful people still suffer unexplainable tragedy, and how should they respond when it comes? Pastor Dorrell examines this question through the widow of Zarephath's crisis in 1 Kings 17:17-24, confronting the instinct to blame ourselves, others, or God when hardship strikes despite a life of obedience. He contrasts her panic with Elijah's response of carrying the grief straight to th...

Why can Christians sit under sound teaching year after year and remain fundamentally unchanged? Pastor Dorrell confronts this modern Christian travesty through James 1:19-27, arguing that we have confused hearing truth with obeying it, treating Scripture as information to audit rather than a mirror meant to alter us. He examines how a receptive posture—one that lays aside defensiveness and self-ju...