FBC Wilmington Sermons

Think about the senior adult sitting a few rows back on the hillside. Three years ago he lost his wife. He can’t work. Disease wracks his body. The government won’t help. The religious leaders tell him he’s too sinful to cure. He lives every day as if it’s his last. Think about what he hears when Jesus says, “Blessed are you who mourns, for you will be comforted. Your brokenness and pain have a pl...

Think about the single mother with kids who have been rejected by society. She’s sitting on the grass rocking her twin girls feeling her future won’t matter ever again. Think about what she hears from Jesus: “Blessed are you single mom, who is poor in spirit, broken by society, culture, religion, and politics. Blessed are you, for the kingdom of heaven is yours.” -Rev. Barrett Owen

A Christ-soaked life has a devotion aspect to it that must be nurtured. In Colossians 4:2, we read: “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” To truly be Christ-soaked in our actions, aspirations, and attitudes, we need a devotional life that is like a faucet running over a sponge, so when we get bumped up against or challenged or squeezed, that which comes out from the inside is...

Our actions matter. It’s why the author of Colossians includes a list that of how we need to act towards one another, even those we struggle to like. Colossians 3:12-14 says, “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against so...

We as humans are buried in sin and shame, yet God makes us alive in Christ. Our baptism mirrors this beautifully. We die to our old ways and old selves and rise again in new life in Christ. As Baptists, our immersion practices make this just an amazing example of what it means to be soaked, through and through, with the love of Christ. -Rev. Barrett Owen

Christ is the head of the cosmos and the source of all creation. Christ is at the top of the known universe and everything in time and space bows the will of Christ. These major doctrinal themes introduced to this early church are still around today. Everything in the universe belongs and is a part of Christ. -Rev. Dr. Jim Everette

There’s a season for everything. Things come and go. There’s always a beginning and an end. When we realize this unfolding, our faith deepens. Gratitude leads. We come to appreciate more deeply the moments we do get and realize they are gifts from God. -Rev. Barrett Owen

Ecclesiastes reminds us that we shouldn’t be so confident in our understanding. The best we can do is remember that we were created for a season, for a time, and that our creature-ness will eventually come to an end. Seeing life from this angle brings with it a certain wisdom that helps us see beyond vanity. -Rev. Barrett Owen

At the end of the book, Job and God mend their divisive and frustrating relationships with humanity and each other. Job wants God to show up and right the illegitimate wrongs. God wants everyone to understand their place within God’s realm. Seeing how these relationships come to an agreeable end is the thing from which wisdom is made. -Rev. Barrett Owen

Despite our best attempts at living with wisdom, some of the most hallowed assumptions are proven false by experience. We often think wisdom supersedes experience, but not in Job. Experience re-authors our understanding of wisdom. It reminds us that real-time and real-emotions shape and color our understanding of God. Job learns this in difficult ways. How he process this pain is for us to underst...

Proverbs 22:1-2 reminds us we must recalibrate our minds from thinking being rich is better than having a good name. Having a good name and being seen as in favor with others is better than being wealthy. -Rev. Barrett Owen

The Book of Proverbs is a positive, hollowed assumption about the goodness of life and the justice of God. Almost every section of scripture reminds us to live positively and with fidelity and hope. Proverbs has a way of using real-life applications to paint a picture of the past and ultimately our future. Out of the hundreds of proverbs available, Proverbs 12:25 offers a way in which we can live...

Pentecost is the moment that the Spirit-promised becomes the Spirit-provided. Undoubtedly the third highest holy day in the Christian calendar, this day remembers when God’s spirit was poured out on all people, everywhere. -Rev. Barrett Owen

"Everything is moving towards eternity. All of our actions and hopes and theology and practices and all of our faith is moving us towards the ultimate end that we know as eternal life. And one of the things that 1 John reminds us is that when we engage with this God in the created order by following Jesus . . . we are given eternal life." -Rev. Barrett Owen

The beginning and end of everything is love. Another way to say this is, “Everything begins and ends out of love.” Love is at the beginning of everything . . . and love is what’s left after everything is gone. Love is before it all and through it all and after it all. Love is eternal. -Dr. Jim Everette

God is love. For those who abide in love, remain in love, and invest in love, and inject love into their being . . . abide in God. And God abides in them. We invite God in, and God’s abiding love takes on new life in us. We could say, “Every time we love, or feel love, or share love, or every time we engage in loving acts . . . we become that which comes from God. We reflect God. Because we are wh...

The God of the Universe, in all God’s great mystery and unknowing, that God receives us out of (and comes to us in) love. -Rev. Barrett Owen

People don’t really believe they’re made from God’s light. When it comes to their own private relationship with God . . . they carry this myth that they’re made from the darkness. That they’re evil. But that’s a lie. You are a reflection of God’s light . . . it’s inside of us . . . and Jesus died on the cross so we could see it and feel it and claim it and shine it! -Rev. Barrett Owen

We must be followers of the light. God is our light. God is that which we follow and how we see. There’s no darkness in him either. And if we’re going to follow it . . . we must live in a way that makes us able to absorb and reflect that light . . . which means there can’t be darkness in us either. And yet sin is darkness. -Rev. John Daniels

What makes Holy Week holy is that it bridges death and life. It says that which dies eventually lives. And if things want to truly live, then they’re going to have to die. Holy Week captures the essence of every aspect of the human condition and ends with Jesus overcoming the grave. You could even say by his resurrection he turns graves into gardens. -Rev. Barrett Owen

What makes Holy Week holy is that it bridges death and life. It says that which dies eventually lives. And if things want to truly live, then they’re going to have to die. Holy Week captures the essence of every aspect of the human condition and ends with Jesus overcoming the grave. You could even say by his resurrection he turns graves into gardens. -Rev. Barrett Owen

What makes Holy Week holy is that it bridges death and life. It says that which dies eventually lives. And if things want to truly live, then they’re going to have to die. Holy Week captures the essence of every aspect of the human condition and ends with Jesus overcoming the grave. You could even say by his resurrection he turns graves into gardens. -Rev. Barrett Owen

John 12:28 is a passage we don’t often quote but we should: “Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came for heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” Here is the voice of God speaking to Jesus saying that a way has been made for us all to move our shame to glory. But the way is going to include death. -Rev. Barrett Owen

In his shame, Nicodemus shows up to Jesus in the middle of the night wanting answers to questions he does not know how to ask. He is ashamed of the current trajectory of the Pharisees, but he can’t name it in the light. He’s burdened by shame. Jesus offers life altering answers to his questions but the story does not say if Nicodemus heeds Jesus’ advice. The story just ends making me wonder, “Can...

Jesus overthrows the tables in Jerusalem’s Temple. He makes a whip of cords and drives the people and animals out too. There are a lot of things we keep stocked in our Temple, our body, soul, and mind that need to be cleared out. Jesus demonstrates in life what needs to also happen inside of each of us. -Rev. Barrett Owen