First Baptist Church of Salem, MA

If missions is one of the greatest purposes of the church, what possibly could be more than missions? Listen in to Psalm 108 today, on this being one of our "Missions Emphasis Sundays", and hear how the worship of the Living Creator God is even our deeper calling in life. More than missions, our hearts, mouths, and perspective sings to the God who has a promise that sings through the ages.

What does the knowing the steadfast love of God actually do for you? Listen in today to a passionate sermon from Mike Lilley about the direct relevance and your great need for the love of God that's available to you free in Jesus.

Why in the world would you want to praise God? This is a command in the Scriptures, and a grand assumption when you walk into a church on a Sunday morning. But why? Why praise God? Listen in today as we learn about one of the most famous and oft-repeated phrases in the whole Bible - "give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His steadfast love endures forever."

What are the promises that you've heard, or that you've even promised to others? As we listen to Psalm 105 read in its entirety, we hear about the great promises of God, beginning all the way back in Genesis 12 with Abraham, and continuing on throughout history. What are the promises of God and what meaning do they have for you today? Listen in today to this message from Alan Vance on the promise...

Psalm 104 assumes that there is a Creator of the whole universe and everything we see around us. But even deeper, what kind of Creator is it? Listen in today as we learn not only about the assumption of a Creator, but about what kind of person He is, and how we fall into a few common traps that cause us to miss the goodness of who He is.

Would you honestly be willing to trade everything else in the world in exchange for God alone? As one of the more memorable Scriptures in the whole Bible, Psalm 84 gives us a glimpse of someone who longs for God in a way that should make us long for Him too. Listen in today as Marcos teaches us verse-by-verse through this wonderful text.

While all of us would like to be loved by everyone, unfortunately, it's pretty commonplace in our world today to feel pushback, opposition, and antagonism by someone or some group of people. The Bible has a lot to say about enemies, surprisingly. Listen in today as we hear one of the "Imprecatory Psalms" and learn how to pray when we feel encircled all around us, like Israel did many times. Instea...

What kind of world do we live in? Psalm 82 is one of the places in Scripture that gives us a peak behind the curtain, to see a world that is more than we usually imagine. But we also discover within this Psalm the profound worth that humans have to God and a potential for real and lasting justice beyond our deepest hopes.

The wilderness is a scary and dangerous place to be, and we all find ourselves in the wilderness in life at some point. But Psalm 81 gives us a beautiful hope to cling to - there's a Rock in the wilderness, and even deeper, there's honey in that Rock. Listen in today and learn afresh how the difficulties and tests of life that God leads us into actually can give us something sweet that we can't fi...

In times of tears and darkness, it is natural for humans to have soul-cries towards something or someone outside of ourselves who can restore us. Psalm 80 repeats this cry for "restoration" three times. What does this teach us about challenging times we go through, and does this even have something to teach us about where we place our ultimate hope? Listen in today and discover how Jesus Christ st...

The purpose of the church, or even religion itself, is often discussed in the modern world. As we listen to an admittedly "brutal Psalm" today in Psalm 79, what possible hope can we gather from Israel's defeat at the hands of Babylon in 586 BC? What we discover is a heartfelt reflection on something we admittedly misunderstand about God (his jealousy), something we love about what God can give (hi...

As we listen to the story of God's faithfulness over many generations read over us from Psalm 78, we find the encouragements to remember, believe, tell, follow. Listen in as we enter into Israel's history, and find its application to us today in the modern world as well.

Our culture of multitasking and transience keeps us from finding our truest and deepest delight. As we begin our journey into the Psalms again this spring/summer, we begin today with Psalm and learn how we can find utter delight. A book, a tree, and an assurance are our images to lasting delight.

After the disciples have seen Risen Jesus two times now already, at this third appearance we finally begin to see why a risen Jesus matters in the world. Listen in today as we discover 5 key changes that take place only because Jesus is alive.

While the claim of the resurrection of Jesus is a supernatural and miraculous claim, there is tangible evidence for it - both for the fearful disciples hidden in a locked room on the evening of the first Easter, for doubting Thomas, and for modern people like us. Listen in today as we listen to the evidence, as we believe what Thomas saw with his eyes and touched with his hands, and receive from G...

What really is the true story behind the person of Jesus? This is the question 2 sad people were asking as they walked home from Jerusalem after Easter 2,000 years ago. Maybe this is one of your questions as well. Before believing in the great hope of the resurrection, our curiosity must lead us to answer this question. Listen in today as we hear this first story about how Jesus Himself comes to u...

What is the true posture of victory? For this Resurrection Sunday sermon, listen in as we learn about how God's work of salvation and redemption is finished! What is Jesus's victory stance? He sat down on the throne of God.

“No one remembers who climbed Mount Everest the second time.” — Edmund Hillary As we begin Holy Week and celebrate on Palm Sunday the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem before us, we focus in on the reality that Jesus is the true and only Pioneer of faith. What does that mean for us? Why is that important? How did Jesus live in the way we could never ourselves? Listen in today as we learn about th...

Faith is one of the most fundamental parts of Christianity. But in a world of multitasking, distraction, and competing ideas, having a singular-focus on Jesus Himself can be admittedly difficult. How do we "fix our eyes" on Jesus alone? Listen in today as we learn about how faith invites us to see a new world, to look around at one another without competing, and to run the marathon of faith and no...

What is the most important thing about you? As we arrive at the end of Jonah's epic story, we begin to finally see God reveal Jonah's deepest heart. What does Jonah care most about? Through the object lesson of a plant and worm, God not only reveals Jonah's heart, but ours as well. Along the way, we discover the most important thing about God too - that He loves humans more than we ever thought po...

In all sincerity, how are you doing today? Is it well with your soul today? How would you answer God if that question was posed to you today? Listen in as Mike Lilley teaches us about how Jonah was doing after God showed great mercy on the city of Nineveh. Why was Jonah so angry? Is God neglecting justice for the sake of mercy? Listen in today to learn how God's deepest character and what makes Hi...

In this story from Jonah today, we see a stunning change happen in the city of Nineveh. Jonah gets a second chance at obedience, the Word of God is delivered, and then repentance rolls throughout the city and the great compassion of God is seen. This is a great model for how change happens for us as well. Listen in today then and discover afresh how true changes settles deep into us.

Can you imagine what you would do if you were such a position as Jonah - literally caught in the belly of a "great fish"?! Jonah pours his heart out to God. Listen in today as we learn from Jonah's almost unbelievable experience, and how he can get to the place of saying, "Salvation belongs to the LORD!"

What does Jesus have to do with Jonah? As the runaway prophet gets thrown overboard and hits the water, eventually finding himself famously in the mouth of a great fish, we see the stormy sea between Joppa and Tarshish calmed and the foreign sailors saved. When confronted with troubles and problems of various kinds in our lives, what will calm our troubled souls? Listen in today as we learn about...

When the microphone gets passed to you, and the spotlight is on you to speak, what hope would you speak to someone in trouble? When Jonah finds himself in that place, we learn about where he finds his truest identity. Listen today as we see how insufficient Jonah's shallow faith is for the fearful sailors in the storm, and instead what kind of faith the world then and now needs from us. As we lear...