First Baptist Granite Falls

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series - The world is full of complainers. Unions, lobbyists, comment cards at restaurants, spouses, kids, and....you guessed it....church members. After the untimely deaths of Aaron's sons in the tabernacle to God's careful instructions on purity and holiness, you would think the Israelites would be getting the point. However, not long after the tabernacle...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series - The Israelites are no strangers to misery and failure. They've been enslaved, built their own god to worship, and have spent a majority of their time wandering in the wilderness complaining about how they wish they were back in Egypt! God has them on the precipice of the promise land and they take time to send spies to explore the land to see what it wa...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series - The children of Israel continue to make their way towards the promise land. They don't know how long it will take and certainly the ambiguity of the journey leads to more frustration and confusion. In Numbers 20 we find them headed into the Wilderness of Zin, where they stayed at Kadesh. As usual, they begin complaining about the lack of water for them...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series - In the closing chapters of Exodus, we find God's people beginning the work of constructing the Tabernacle, which will be a place in the center of His people for His presence to dwell. He has given Moses specific instructions on the dimensions and contents down to even the garments the priest will wear as he ministers in the holy place. These final occur...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series  - As God continues to lead His people through the wilderness of hard knocks, He wants them to take Him seriously. What is God serious about? He's serious about worship, holiness, and His people. Join us as we journey through some select passages in Leviticus and Numbers to ask ourselves what happens when we begin, "Taking God Seriously"!

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series -  Wanderers Learning How to Worship | The children of Israel have left Egypt, moved to Succoth, then on to the Red Sea. In a miraculous display of events, God divides the massive waters to allow his people through and totally destroys the Egyptian army! From Exodus 14 to 17 we see them win their first battle in the wilderness against the Amalekites. Now they...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series - There should be great excitement for our church to encounter a look back at the journey of the children of Israel from Egypt to the Promise Land this fall! From September to Christmas we will be exploring how God delivered His people from Pharoah, then carried them on an eye-opening trek for 40 years in the wilderness. The purpose for the detour was to show...

Wanderers or Worshipers Sermon Series  - Last week we began following the journey of the children of Israel out of Egypt, from Rameses to Succoth. One hundred twenty miles later they paused to bake their unleavened bread for provisions. This week we will resume where Pharaoh realizes Israel has taken off and begins to pursue them with every ounce of military asset he has to use. Now the children o...

Part 4: A Beautiful Exchange Sermon Series - The Final Exchange - What will you exchange for eternity? After all we have explored concerning the transaction of salvation between us and God, there is one final week we need to contemplate this "Beautiful Exchange". At the end of this life and the beginning of eternity there will be a reckoning of sorts that will assign our destinations. Th...

Associate Pastor TJ Harris walks us through the prayer of unity Jesus prayed for His followers. Unity always brings consistency and power to the mission God has called us to accomplish by His power and authority. 

Is Your Soul Satisfied? The great song "In Christ Alone" contains the words: "Till on that cross, the Savior died, the wrath of God was satisfied." Once Jesus died on the cross, the wrath of God was "satisfied". If we trust in Christ and His work on the cross not only is the wrath of God toward sin satisfied, but that should make our soul satisfied. We become dissatis...

The story of Achan and his family in the book of Joshua shows us the truth of how God takes sin seriously. Achan's disobedience proves that there are significant consequences to ignoring God's command. How does this age-old story affect our day to day walk with Christ? Join us as we explore the "Side Effects of Sin"!

- Celebrating the Beautiful Exchange - For several weeks now we have been exploring the concept of salvation through the beautiful exchange of our sin for the righteousness of Jesus. As we spend this Sunday contemplating the body and blood of Christ and what He gave up to give us new life, we are reminded that the only logical thing for us to do if we are in Christ, is to give away our lives as li...

Part III: Beautiful Exchange Sermon Series - Tried & Transformed: "Being Saved", "Asking in Jesus into Our Hearts", "Christianity"....all are general ways to allude to some kind of encounter with God. But, if there is no measurable fruit after the encounter, then all we've done is gone through a process or motion to make us feel better about ourselves. Encoun...

Part I: Beautiful Exchange Sermon Series - What it Looks Like to be Free! We use words and phrases like "salvation", "got saved", "asked Jesus into my heart", but what does all that really mean? Is salvation merely a decision we make or a transformation that God performs? We will spend a couple of weeks unpacking passages of scripture that show us what the true transa...

Part II: Beautiful Exchange Sermon Series - Last week we looked at some of Ephesians 2 and learned of our bleak outlook before Christ. Now this week we will shift gears and look at how God took our hopelessness and gave us an amazing gift of righteousness! Is salvation just a one time deal? No! This week we will see that our lives are tremendously affected and we are truly CHANGED when we look aga...

Special Guest: TJ Harris, Candidate for Associate Pastor of Students & Families - As we pause our "Beautiful Exchange" Sermon Series this week, we do so with excited hearts to welcome TJ Harris to the pulpit. He will be sharing his story with us and walking through Matthew 5 to show us how we as followers of Jesus are to be effective disciples that concern ourselves with the kingdom...

Father's Day (Family Matters Sermon Series)  - There are many "fathers" in the Bible. Some are great examples and some are bad examples. Either way, even the great examples are imperfect men that rely on a holy God. Job is one of those examples. He is certainly not perfect, but the beginning of Job tells us he was blameless and upright, feared God, and shunned evil. Job also shows u...

Missions Highlight - Ben Johnston shares about his trip to India, backpacking the mountains and sharing the gospel from village to village.  *What does it look like for us to be on mission? What does it look like as individuals and the church to fulfill the Great Commission? Jesus tells us in Matthew 28 that by His authority we are to go to all nations and make disciples. That begins with us local...

Family Matters Sermon Series  - The Psalms point us the glory of God and guidance on how to worship Him. They instruct us to have dependence on Him and live our lives according to His commands. In Psalms 127-128, we find some instruction and encouragement on raising a family and how we encounter blessing through the family. This week join us as we see what God says about "A Proper Philosophy...

Family Matters Sermon Series - Out of all creation, even the darkness of sin that had permeated mankind, God's glory was still the center of it all. From mountains to vast oceans His physical creative glory was still on display. However, as beautiful as all of that is, God's crowning glory is still His people and His church. After all, we are created in His image. Then He gave us the &qu...

Family Matters Sermon Series - God specifically designed the family to accomplish His purpose of magnifying His glory so that all would know that He is God! This week we take a look at the story of Noah and how God desires for Godly families to thrive even in the midst of a wayward culture. In order for that to take place we have to know the "Ingredients for a Godly Family"!

Family Matters Sermon Series - On this Memorial Day Weekend we remember those who have given their lives for the freedom in our country. No doubt, freedom is something that makes this country great! However, the foundation of every nation in the world is the family. Pope John Paul II once said, "As the family goes, so goes the nation." With moral decline and ideologies that are undermini...

Family Matters Sermon Series - God has gifted us with three main institutions for life: Marriage. Family. The Church. All three gives us blessing, structure, and a way that brings order and hope to the world! In May and June we are embarking on a sermon series that will show us the framework and blessing of how God's idea of family is all a part of the plan to point the world to Jesus. God is...

Mother's Day / Family Matters Sermon Series -  Eve: The Mother of All Living Our new sermon series takes us on a journey that reveals the original family God gave us. This isn’t just any family, but the family God gave us to populate the rest of the world. This week for Mother’s Day, we turn our focus to Eve who was created to complement Adam in a way that only God can provide. She is a wife,...