Pilgrim Baptist Church

05/31/2026

05/31/2026

05/30/2026

You'll find more than shops in downtown Cookeville on a Friday night. You'll find families — children and parents together — holding scripture signs and offering gospel tracts to anyone willing to read them. No gimmicks. Just the truth that saves. If a tract landed in your hand this weekend, we'd love to see you Sunday.

05/29/2026

When I got married, I stood at the altar holding my bride's hand, and off to my left stood my best man. Now picture that best man leaning over mid-ceremony and mumbling, "You know what? I think I ought to have her." Gentlemen, you'd have a problem on your hands. A real one. That fella's going home with a black eye and a bloody nose.

But that's not what a true friend of the bridegroom does. He stands there overjoyed. He's not jealous. He's happy. The Bible says he "rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice" (John 3:29). He came to point everyone to the groom, not to himself.

That's John the Baptist. The celebrity preacher of his day, the man everybody wanted to crowd around. And when his own disciples got bent out of shape because the people were leaving John and running to Jesus, John didn't sulk. He smiled and said, "He must increase, but I must decrease" (John 3:30).

Seven words that go against everything this world preaches. Build your brand. Grow your followers. Climb the ladder. Be a VIP — a Very Important Person. John says no. Be a Very Intentional Decreaser.

And here's the secret to being truly happy. It isn't found in getting what you want. It's found the day you catch yourself glad — really glad — that somebody else got what they needed. And what every soul needs is the Increaser, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The true path to greatness doesn't climb higher. It bows lower. Your greatest achievement is not making your name known. It's making His name known. And the sweetest words you will ever hear in your life are not "look at me."

They're "look at Him."

If this pointed you to Him, point somebody else to it. Not to build this little blog — I couldn't care less about that. Send it because there's a soul who needs the Increaser, and you just might be the friend who points them to the Bridegroom.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/

John the Baptist shows the path to biblical humility and true greatness: He must increase, I must decrease. Decrease yourself and exalt Christ.

05/28/2026

05/28/2026

We used to meet in a rough section of town in the early years of Pilgrim and on the way to the church house we'd pass this run-down house every single time. You could tell by the people coming and going that nothing good was happening inside. It was the wrong crowd with bad news written all over it. The kind of house where you cross to the other side of the street without even thinking about it. One day we drove past and there was a condemned sign posted right in the window. It didn't surprise me one bit and my first thought was, it's about time.

But then it hit me while I was preparing to preach John 3.

That sign didn't condemn the building.

The foundation had been cracked long before anyone showed up with a sign. The wiring had been a fire hazard for years. The structure was already unsound. The sign didn't create the condition — it just declared it to the world.

We're not in the business of condemning anybody. God said it plain in John 3:17 — "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved." The condemned sign is already on every lost sinner born into Adam's line. We've all been conceived in sin — Psalm 51 says so. And Romans 5 confirms it: death passed to all men through one man.

When we preach the gospel, we're just posting the sign. We're not putting something on people that wasn't already there. We're pointing them to a Master Builder who didn't come to nail up condemnation notices. He came to create in us a new creature. He builds us up.

"He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already." — John 3:18

Condemned already. Not after the sermon. Not after the invitation. Already.

So go tell somebody.

The full sermon is right here. Give it a listen.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/

The gospel doesn't condemn the lost — they already are. A biblical truth from John 3 every Christian needs to hear before they go out and witness.

05/26/2026

We'll never say it out loud. But the way we live says it for us.

We like the gifts from the Giver. We just don't like the Giver.

Kids do it. They love dad's provision more than they love dad. Every father knows that sting. And God — the one who didn't just send a blessing but sent His Son — knows it too.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." — John 3:16

He gave. Not a loan. Not a transaction. Love with a price tag only heaven could afford.

Are you pursuing the Giver, or just collecting what He gives? Are you in the Word to know Him, or just for the comfort of knowing things are covered?

Real faith isn't gratitude for benefits. It's a relationship with a Person.

Don't settle for loving what God does. Love God.

There's a section in the sermon where I unpacked "so loved" that took me all week to put together. Go hear it for yourself.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word.
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/

Most Christians love what God gives more than God himself. A short, convicting read on John 3:16 and what real faith actually looks like.

05/24/2026

05/24/2026

05/24/2026