Lakeside Baptist Church

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Lakeside Baptist Church We are an independent, fundamental, 1611 King James Bible , Baptist church. We are very handicap acc We are a small country church, with a family feel.

We welcome you to come join us at the following times:
Sunday school 10am
Sunday service 11am
Sunday evening 6pm
Bible study on Wednesday 7pm.

10/21/2026

Imagine yourself Rip Van Winkle, falling asleep twenty years ago. When you went to sleep, we didn’t have deepfakes, doom­scrolling, cryptocurrency, artificial intelligence, or emojis. We didn’t even have Apple Pay because we didn’t have iPhones. You woke up to cancel culture, viral outrage, virtue signaling, echo chambers, and algorithmic clickbait.

The tectonic plates of technology, ideology, and morality have shifted, which begs the question: How do we navigate this cultural moment?

There is a more excellent way—the Jesus way.
There is a radical middle—full of grace and truth.
There is a road less traveled—the journey to nonconformity.

The call to nonconformity is choosing faith over fear, truth over trends, compassion over canceling. It’s living according to your deepest held convictions, come hell or high water. It’s rejecting popular opinion, peer pressure, and political correctness when those things are at odds with God’s good, pleasing, and perfect will. And let’s just call those things what they are—the fear of man.

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
‭‭1 John‬ ‭2‬:‭15‬-‭17‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/20/2026

Yes, we are called to keep following. Yes, we are called to abide. Yes, we are called to take up our cross, crucify the flesh, clear the room, and actively welcome God into every part of our lives.

His desire for us is greater than our desire for Him.

That is the heart of the gospel. God is not a distant Father waiting to see if we can crawl back with enough sincerity. He is the Father who sees the son while he is still a long way off and runs toward him. He does not wait for the speech to be perfect. He does not demand that the son clean himself up before the embrace. He moves first in mercy.

Even when we have drifted, God does not leave us to wither. A disconnected branch cannot heal itself. It cannot produce fruit by trying harder. It cannot make itself alive again. Life comes from the vine. Strength comes from being reattached to Christ.

And God is not reluctant to reattach you.

He wants to bring you close. He wants to restore what has withered. He wants to nurture, water, prune, heal, and make you fruitful again. He does not simply offer a doorway and hope you find it. He comes running. He knocks. He calls. He invites. He makes a way through Jesus.

“And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: for this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭15‬:‭20‬-‭24‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/16/2026

“We want You here” is a beautiful prayer. It sounds right. It sounds spiritual. It sounds like the kind of thing every follower of Jesus should say.

But there is another confession underneath it that we need to be honest about: by default, our flesh says, “God, we don’t want You here.”

That feels uncomfortable to admit. Most of us would not say it out loud. We love God. We believe in Him. We desire His presence. We want the fruit of abiding. We want peace, joy, strength, purpose, freedom, and a life that looks more like Jesus.

But desire is not the same as invitation.

Following Jesus is not adding Him to a life that remains mostly ours. It is surrendering life itself.

This is why we drift. Our sinful nature does not naturally make room for God. It wants space for itself. It wants comfort, control, pride, independence, and hidden corners. So if we stop intentionally moving toward Jesus, we do not stay neutral. We begin moving away.

There is no cruise control in discipleship.

The invitation today is not to feel ashamed. It is to get honest. Where have your actions been saying, “God, I don’t want You here,” even while your mouth has been saying the opposite?

Jesus is not asking for a guest room. He is asking for the whole house.

“As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him: rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.”
‭‭Colossians‬ ‭2‬:‭6‬-‭7‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/14/2026

In Acts 4, Peter and John had just been arrested and released. After pressure, threats, and opposition, they returned to their community. They did not carry it alone. They did not process it in isolation. They came back to the people of God.

And together, they prayed.

Scripture says that after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

There is power when one person prays. But there is something deeply significant when the people of God pray together. Faith joins with faith. Burdens are carried together. Courage rises together. The atmosphere shifts.

That is why community is not a nice extra for when life settles down. It is part of how Jesus sustains us. Real community strengthens our prayer life, our resilience, our leadership, our obedience, and our courage. When we drift from community, we often do not notice it immediately. Drift is quiet. It is gradual. It is only later that we look up and realise how far we have moved.

We may still be attending, still serving, still showing up, but attendance is not the same as community. You can be in the room and still be unknown. You can be near people and still carry everything alone. You can be surrounded but not supported.

The invitation is not to do more for the sake of doing more. It is to go deeper.

When Christians pray together, the atmosphere shakes.

So let this become the cry of our community: God, we want You here. We together want you here. Shake the room. Fill your people. Make us bold. Make us one.

“But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.”
‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭12‬:‭18‬-‭27‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/13/2026

Faith is deeply personal, but it was never meant to be private. God meets us individually, speaks to us personally, and calls each of us by name. He leaves the ninety-nine to go after the one. But he also designed something no solo experience can ever replace: the church.

Not a building. Not an organisation. Not a Sunday service with a good logo. A people. A gathered, praying, serving, loving, committed who say together, “God, we want You here.”

The early church did not attract people with a program. They attracted people with a presence. Their community became a living witness that Jesus was alive and Lord. People did not just hear a message. They saw a people shaped by the presence of God.

The early church did not attract people with a program. They attracted people with a presence. Their community became a living witness that Jesus was alive and Lord. People did not just hear a message. They saw a people shaped by the presence of God.

That is what the Christian community is meant to be. Not just people occupying the same room. Not just a friendly conversation before and after a service. Not just sitting in the same seat, and leaving unchanged. Community is shared life. It is knowing and being known. It is praying and being prayed for. It is serving and being served. It is carrying one another when life becomes heavy.

Psalm 133 says it is good and pleasant when God’s people live together in unity. There, the Lord commands His blessing. Unity is not just a nice feeling. It is an environment where God’s presence is powerfully released.

“Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭133‬:‭1‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭10‬:‭24‬-‭25‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/12/2026

One of the greatest dangers in the Christian life is not always obvious rebellion. Sometimes it is competence.

We learn how to function. We learn how to manage. We learn how to lead, build, serve, parent, work, plan, and keep moving. From the outside, everything can look healthy. We can have Christian language in our mouths, church rhythms in our calendars, and good intentions in our hearts.

But underneath it all, we may have quietly learned how to live without depending on God.

That is the danger of self-sufficiency.

Jesus’ words to the church in Laodicea are confronting because they were not spoken to people who had abandoned religious activity. They spoke to people who thought they were doing fine. They said, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.” But Jesus saw what they could not see. Their confidence had become blind. Their comfort had become lukewarm. Their strength had become a barrier to dependence.

Self-sufficiency says, “I’ve got this.”

Dependence says, “Jesus, apart from You, I can do nothing.”

That is the life we are called to. Not a life where God is kept nearby in case we need Him, but a life where He is welcomed into everything. Our plans. Our decisions. Our homes. Our work. Our leadership. Our weakness. Our conversations. Our future.

The Christian life is not about becoming impressive enough to function without God. It is about becoming surrendered enough to walk with Him in everything, everyday.

“not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;”
‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭3‬:‭5‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/09/2026

Most of us know what it feels like to mean to make the call.

There is someone we care about, someone the relationship genuinely matters with, and we think, “I need to call them.” But then the day moves on. Days become weeks. Weeks can even become months. The relationship has not ended. The love has not disappeared. There is no anger, no big falling out, no dramatic moment. The call simply never gets made.

For many of us, our relationship with God can quietly take that same shape.

We believe in Him. We love Him. We would say He matters. We intend to pray, to seek Him, to press in, to make space. But life gets busy. We become distracted. The call keeps getting pushed down the list.

And yet, God has not moved.

He is still near. He is still present. He is still for us. But there is a difference between God being near and God being welcomed. There is a difference between believing He is available and actively making room for Him.

Revelation 3 gives us one of the most confronting pictures in Scripture. Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.” We often imagine that verse as Jesus speaking only to people who do not know Him yet. But those words were first spoken to a church. A gathered people. A believing people. A people who knew the songs, the prayers, the language, and the routines.

And somehow, Jesus was outside the door.

Not because He did not want to come in. Not because He was unwilling. But because the people had learned how to function without truly welcoming Him.

That is the danger of a God-branded life. We can carry Christian language, attend church, serve, lead, give, worship, and still live with self-sufficiency in our hearts. We can know how to do “Christian” without daily depending on Christ.

But Jesus keeps knocking.

That knock is mercy. It means He has not walked away. It means He still wants fellowship. He does not come in like a harsh inspector, pointing out every flaw. He comes in to eat with us. That is the language of family, friendship, abiding, and shared life.

So today, make the call.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”
‭‭Revelation‬ ‭3‬:‭20‬ ‭KJV‬‬

10/08/2026

In Mark 6, Jesus returned to Nazareth, His hometown. The people there knew His family. They knew His story. They had heard His teaching and knew about His miracles. They had every reason to believe.

But familiarity became a barrier.

They said, “Isn’t this the carpenter?” They could not see past what was familiar to recognise what was divine. The people were amazed by Jesus, but Jesus was amazed by their unbelief.

That is a sobering thought. The outsiders in Matthew 8 moved toward Jesus with faith, but the insiders in Nazareth stood close to Him while facing away from Him.

That can happen to us, too.

We can be inside the church, inside the community, inside the language of faith, and still be facing the wrong direction. We can tick the boxes, attend the services, know the songs, understand the culture, and slowly stop expecting God to move. Over time, disappointment, comfort, routine, or self-sufficiency can turn our hearts away from Jesus while our lives still look religious.

Desperation has a way of turning people back toward Him. The woman with the issue of blood pushed through the crowd. Blind Bartimaeus cried out when others told him to be quiet. Lillian Thrasher gathered hungry children to pray when every supply line had closed. Desperation did not embarrass them. It drove them straight to Jesus.

To be desperate for God is not weakness. It is the posture of a heart that knows where life comes from.

We can live turned inward, limited by our own ability and resources, or we can turn outward toward Christ and live from His abundance.

So today, check the direction of your heart. You may be close to church, close to worship, close to Christian language, and still need to turn again.

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.”
‭‭Mark‬ ‭6‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭KJV‬‬

“When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.”
‭‭Psalm‬ ‭27‬:‭8‬ ‭KJV‬‬

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4076 Afton Elklick Road
Batavia, OH
45103

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