First Baptist Church of Jackson, Michigan - Sermons

This Week: How to Sleep Better at Night Have you ever lost sleep over relationship friction? Maybe you’ve had an interaction with a coworker, friend, or family member that didn’t go like you wanted it to, and now your brain is replaying the scenario over and over. The author of Proverbs has some advice for how to sleep better at night based on how you respond to people during the day. Join us as w...

This Week: What Does It Look Like to Love My Neighbor? It’s easy to SAY you love your neighbor, but what does that look like? This week we’re looking at biblical laws that sought to legislate methods of practicing love for your neighbor. What do those methods look like in today’s world? Join us as we seek to love our neighbors better today. Series: How to Love Your Neighbor in a Divided World Is i...

This Week: Is it Safe to Love? How can we love our neighbors if we close off our hearts? Some of us close our hearts because we’ve been hurt. Others close our hearts because we’ve run out of space. This week, we’re reading from 1 Peter, where Peter encourages you to love with a tender heart, even if it risks pain. Join us as we seek how to do that everyday. Series: How to Love Your Neighbor in a D...

This Week: Who is My Neighbor? Almost everyone who’s been around churches knows the story of the Good Samaritan. It’s the story of the despised neighbor who turns out to be the unexpected compassionate caregiver. And yet, we all struggle to recognize the potential goodness in some of our neighbors. Join us as we stretch out assumptions about who and how to love. Series: How to Love Your Neighbor i...

This Week: When is Freedom Dangerous? Everybody wants freedom, but sometimes that freedom causes harm. The relationship between freedoms and laws can be tricky to navigate – with everyone having their own opinion on where to draw the lines. Paul wrote to churches in Galatia who were struggling with this. His advice – and his warning – is critical to loving your neighbor in a divided world. Series:...

Is it possible to be a loving person in our polarized cutthroat world? Every action, every word, and every social post is pulled into a brutal war of us versus them. It’s not simply politics that cause fights today; it’s our entertainment, our education, our workplaces, our churches, our family gatherings  – basically everywhere. It doesn’t have to be this way. Jesus told his followers that i...

Have you ever wondered why there are 7 days in a week? It makes sense why we have 365 days in a year – that’s how long it takes the earth to orbit around the sun. We split those 365 days into 12 months which almost coincide with the moon’s 29.5 day cycle. By why is a week 7 days long? The answer might surprise you in its radical claim about work, rest, and enjoying life. Join us for Labor Day week...

If you’ve ever wanted to help someone but felt helpless to do so, this week is for you. As we close out our sermon series, Empowered, we focus not on the gifts we feel like we need, but the ones we have that are enough. Join us as we reflect on the miraculous power that is enough for us. Series: Empowered Have you ever felt powerless? Have news stories about the problems of the world disheartened...

Have you ever felt like you didn’t meet the requirements to be included? You never felt like you fit in at work, or couldn’t get accepted into a friend group, or never felt like you were welcomed by your in-laws. There is always one more thing you’re asked to do to prove you fit in. If you’ve ever felt that way, this week you’ll want to join us for worship as we explore the requirements people mad...

Our imaginations of the future can shape our behavior. Are we living out of fear or hope? In Acts 21, Luke tells the story of a prophet coming to announce some unsettling news to Paul and his companions. What will they do with that prophecy? Join us as we seek to live faithfully regardless of what our immediate future holds. Series: Empowered Have you ever felt powerless? Have news stories about t...

Are you hesitant to believe that something really good can happen in your life? For many of us, when life’s obstacles come our way we start to believe that our future is only going to get worse.  Luke tells the story of Peter sleeping in a jail cell waiting to be executed, but he woke up in the middle of the night to a prison break – by an angel. And just like you, he didn’t believe it at fir...

Can people change? Even if we’re hopeful about our own ability to grow and change, most of us are skeptical about whether our enemies can ever change. In Acts 9, Luke tells the story of Ananias who was called to support Saul’s transformation despite the fact that Saul had intended harm to people like Ananias. Join us as we reflect on the hope that people can change for the better. Series: Empowere...

Are you hoping to hear from God? Aimee Coolbaugh, Journey Associate at Westwinds Community Church, invites you to reflect on the different ways God speaks to Peter and Cornelius in Acts 10, and how God speaks to us today. Series: Empowered Have you ever felt powerless? Have news stories about the problems of the world disheartened you because there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about it?...

Do you ever struggle with how to talk about your faith? This week Jamin Bradley, Pastor of 1208 Greenwood Church, guest preaches and invites us to reflect on Paul's trip to Athens in Acts 17 and learn how to better talk about Jesus today.   Series: Empowered Have you ever felt powerless? Have news stories about the problems of the world disheartened you because there doesn’t seem to be anythi...

This week Pastor Dallas encourages you to embrace the healing power of confession – even when it isn’t easy. Have you ever felt like there wasn’t closure after a fight? Time just moved on and things were just supposed to be okay. This week, we’re talking about the power of confession. In Acts 16, a mob in Philippi decided to beat and imprison Paul and Silas, and the next morning they wanted the pr...

This week Pastor Dallas encourages you to heal wounds you haven’t even noticed yet. Sometimes we’re oblivious to the pains around us. We don’t see the pain we’ve caused. Maybe they’re hiding their pain or maybe we aren’t looking. Even more, sometimes we’re oblivious to our own pain. We think our life is great, but we haven’t noticed the darkness lurking underneath. In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are b...

This week Pastor Dallas encourages you to stop complaining about injustice and do something about it. When Is It Okay to be Annoyed? (Acts 16:16-24) Chances are there are some things wrong with this world that frustrate you. You see it, even without looking for it. Some people are working multiple jobs and still struggling to earn enough to survive on. Others suffer from addictions but can’t get h...

This week Pastor Dallas shares about the relationship between money and God’s power. Does God Need My Money? (Acts 8:4-25) Most spiritual people will tell you that money can’t buy you divine favor. Yet, we are all tempted to use our money to gain power and elevate our reputation. In Acts 8, Luke writes about a man named Simon who wanted to buy the apostle’s power. Join us as we discuss this unusua...

This week Pastor Dallas shares about how faking spirituality robs you of God’s power for your life. Robbing Power (Acts 4:32-5:16) Have you ever wondered if something was too good to be true? That lingering question could be a realization of problems hidden under the surface. On the other hand, that lingering question could be robbing an actually good thing of its power for you. This week, we read...

The Gatekeepers (Acts 2:1-21) We live in an age where a lot of the traditional gatekeepers have fallen. News channels and newspapers still exist; but news commentary also happens by influencers on Twitch and TikTok. Authors don’t have to find traditional publishers; they can publish directly to Amazon. Musicians don’t have to sign a major record deal; they can release music on Spotify or Soundclou...

The Replacements (Luke 1:15-26) Have you ever felt incapable of accomplishing the task ahead of you? What do you do when you feel that way? In Acts 1, the disciples first activities after Jesus’ ascension say a lot about how prepared they felt to face the new challenges ahead of them. This week we’ll talk about what it’s like trying to replace a powerful leader and replace a friend who let you dow...

Have you ever felt powerless? Have news stories about the problems of the world disheartened you because there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about it? Powerless is not how God describes us or created us. Jesus told his disciples that God would give us power and then the disciples lives were forever changed. Exploring stories of power in the book of Acts, we’ll describe how God wants to em...

Did you see what just happened? How does this look? You saw that too, right? Each of us have an important vantage point in the world. Our lives have different experiences, expectations, and imaginations. At the end of the Gospel of Luke, Luke finishes by turning the story over to the audience. You are called to be witnesses to what has happened, what is happening, and what will happen. In the conc...

Have you ever felt something was too good to be true? Luke tells us about some of the disciples’ first experience of the risen Jesus. They didn’t immediately believe. Some doubted. Others thought Jesus was a ghost. This week we talk about the the reality of our hope here and now. Sermon Series: Write Your Own Headlines This Easter, we begin a series investigating the stories we notice and share. W...

Have you ever had a friendship that you didn’t appreciate enough until it was gone? This week, we’re reading about some of Jesus’ disciples who were sad because they missed Jesus. Jesus shows up to them in the story, but they didn’t realize it was him. When they finally realized Jesus was with them –POOF!— Jesus was gone. How the disciples responded to Jesus’s presence and disappearance can change...