Pilgrim: a Podcast from Pastor Fortunato

📖 Proverbs 3:27-35 • Are you grinding through your Christian life trying harder and checking boxes — or have you actually been to the secret place? ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 1, 2026. Most Bible-believing Christians read Proverbs 3 like a report card: withhold not, devise not, envy not, strive not. Check. Check. Check. But Solomon isn't writing a list of comman...

📖 Proverbs 3:21-26 • We live in a generation that can't sleep. Melatonin in the medicine cabinet, anxiety on the mind, scrolling at midnight, tossing at 2:00 a.m. Solomon says there's a kind of wisdom that lets you lie down and your sleep will be sweet—and it's not drug induced, alcohol assisted, or Netflix numbing. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 8, 2026. 📚 Par...

Proverbs 4:10–13 • The most important work you'll ever do isn't at the office — it's passing wisdom to the face looking up at you. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 15, 2026 Somebody showed you the right path. There's a face attached to that — a parent, a preacher, a Sunday school teacher whose name nobody outside those four walls ever knew. That's how wisdom works. It...

📖 Proverbs 4:1-9 • Solomon looks back at his boyhood and realizes — his father's love got in the door before the teaching ever did. And the clay was still soft. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 8, 2026. There's a moment in Proverbs 4 that stops you cold. Solomon — the wisest man who ever lived — switches seats mid-sermon. One verse he's the father at the head of the...

📖 John 7:46-53 • When the officers said "Never man spake like this man," the Pharisees didn't ask what He said. They attacked the men who said it. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 15, 2026 The officers returned from their failed attempt to arrest Jesus and said something that stunned the room: "Never man spake like this man." The Pharisees didn't ask what He said. Th...

📖 John 7:40–46 • The crowd fractured. Three groups heard the same sermon and walked away with three different verdicts. Then the officers came back empty-handed — and gave the most powerful testimony to Jesus Christ in all four gospels. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 8, 2026. What does it mean that "never man spake like this man"? These words weren't spoken by a di...

📖 John 7:37-39 • "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." Jesus didn't raise his hand and wait to be recognized. He stood up and cried — an interruptive, loud, exclamatory declaration in the middle of the most sacred day on the Jewish calendar. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 1, 2026. Why was this the greatest day of the feast? Why did the priest carry w...

📖 John 7:32-36 • Jesus warned the most theologically trained men in Israel: "Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me." They had the law, the feasts, the temple — and they still missed the one the law was pointing to. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 22, 2026. The most dangerous spiritual condition isn't atheism — it's religious performance that replaces personal f...

📖 John 7:25-31 • Do you really know God, or do you just know facts about God? There's a massive difference between having right answers and having a real relationship. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 15, 2026. The religious leaders in John 7 had all the right answers. They could quote Micah 5 about where the Messiah would be born. They knew the scriptures inside...

📖 John 7:19-24 • Everyone knows "judge not"—but almost nobody knows what Jesus actually meant. What if the Bible doesn't forbid judging, but commands righteous judgment? ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 8, 2026. 📚 Part of our verse-by-verse expository series through the Gospel of John The Pharisees are plotting to kill Jesus while claiming to uphold Moses' law. T...

Galatians 6:7 • If you've been anywhere near a school hallway, a grocery store, or a bleacher in the last year — you've heard it. Before the chant went viral, God already owned the address. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 22, 2026. Something grabbed a number, packaged it in a melody borrowed from the most-watched children's song in internet history, attached it to...

📖 Matthew 6:19-23 • Is Valentine's Day harmless romance or pagan deception? This sermon exposes the shocking history of February 14th that most Christians have never heard. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 15, 2026 Valentine's Day isn't what you've been told. It's not romantic, it's not Christian, and it's not harmless. Americans spent $20 billion this weekend on...

📖 Zechariah 13:8-9 • Daniel 9:27 • Two-thirds of the Jewish people will perish in the Tribulation — but the remnant will be refined as silver, call on God's name, and finally say: The LORD is my God. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 8, 2026. What does it mean for God to refine a nation? In this expository message, Pastor Fortunato walks through one of the most soberi...

📖 Daniel 9:24-27 • God gave Daniel an exact prophetic timeline — 490 years divided into 69 weeks to Messiah, a pause button called the Church Age, and one final week still coming. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 1, 2026. The 70 Weeks of Daniel is one of the most precise and stunning prophecies in all of Scripture — and most Christians have never had it walked throug...

📖 Daniel 9:24 • Jeremiah 30:5-7 • Matthew 24:21 • What is the tribulation? When does the rapture happen? What is Daniel's 70th week? This sermon explains God's prophetic timeline and Israel's future judgment. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 15, 2026. Most Christians are confused about end times prophecy. They don't understand the difference between the church age...

📖 1 Corinthians 3:9-15 • Are you building a life that will last for eternity, or are you wasting your days blowing smoke? Every Christian will stand before the judgment seat of Christ where fire will test what you built with your life. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February, 8, 2026. The Bible says we are "laborers together with God"—active participants in His work. But...

📖 1 John 2:24-27 • What happens when men who once walked with you, broke bread with you, and taught you the Bible walk out — and then come back trying to sell you something better than what you have? ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 19, 2026 False teachers don't win by out-arguing you in the Bible. They win by making the truth too costly for you to keep. More people....

1 John 2:18–23 • How do you know if a teacher is real or a counterfeit? John gives the church a doctrinal test — not an emotional one. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 12, 2026. False teachers are not going to announce themselves. They don't stand up and say "I am the Antichrist." What they do is quietly move into the place that belongs to Jesus Christ — speaking His...

📖 1 John 2:15–17 • Are you drifting? John reveals three stages that let the world into your heart — and most Christians are already in stage two. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • March 5, 2026. Most preaching on "love not the world" starts at stage two — the point where damage is already done. In this exposition of 1 John 2:15–17, Pastor Fortunato traces the full three-sta...

📖 1 John 2:12–14 • Do you know where you actually stand spiritually? Not by age, not by years in the pew — but by where God's Word places you right now. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 26, 2026. Most Christians have read 1 John 2:12–14 without realizing that John's letter has their name written all over it. In six declarations to three groups — little children, y...

📖 1 John 2:7-11 • The Apostle John — the last man standing, writing from Ephesus as the final eyewitness to the resurrection — uses what may be his last ink not for prophecy or persecution strategy. He writes about love. Specifically, the love you owe the brother you can't stand to be in the same room with. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 19, 2026. John confronts...

📖 1 John 2:3-6 • Are you certain you're saved, or do you wrestle with doubt? This sermon reveals three witnesses that prove whether you truly know Christ. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • February 12, 2026 "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." First John isn't asking if you're saved—it's asking if you know that you're saved. There's a world...

Romans 14:10-12 • Why do we use the King James Bible instead of modern versions? This lesson on the judgment seat of Christ reveals a critical doctrinal reason: translation choices that prove the deity of Jesus Christ. ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • January 11, 2026. When Romans 14:10 says we'll stand before the "judgment seat of Christ" and verse 12 says we'll give accou...

1 John 1:9 • "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." If I'm saved, why does my sin matter? Can I lose my salvation when I sin? This sermon explains the crucial difference between your STANDING (eternal position before God) and your STATE (earthly fellowship and walk). ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, T...

John 6:67-71 • You ever watch somebody you love deeply walk out the door, and you know in your heart you're not going to see them again? That's where Jesus stands—the crowds are gone, the disciples have left. Jesus turns to the twelve and asks: "Will ye also go away?" ⛪ Preached at Pilgrim Baptist Church • Cookeville, TN • January 4, 2026. 📚 Part of our verse-by-verse expository series through t...