Watson Baptist Church

09/07/2026

The Covenant Marriage Part 1 (Moving from “Me” to “We”)

The biggest threat to your marriage isn't your finances, your schedule, or your communication skills. It’s selfishness.

Dear Christian,

We see the devastating effects of this right at the beginning of human history. The moment the first sin occurred in the Garden of Eden, what did Adam do? He didn't step up to protect his wife. Instead, he threw her under the bus. To selfishly save face and justify his own actions to God, he pointed the finger at Eve.

In that single moment of self-preservation, the battle of the sexes was born.

When we act out of selfishness, we subtly turn our spouse into a competitor. The only known cure for the problem of selfishness is self-denial.

One of my most treasured memories is having the honor of meeting Robertson McQuilkin. He was a brilliant theologian and the highly successful president of Columbia International University.

But in 1990, at the absolute peak of his influence, he shocked the academic world by walking away from his prestigious career for one reason: his wife, Muriel.

Muriel was in the severe cognitive decline of Alzheimer's, and she was only at peace when Robertson was nearby. He refused to institutionalize her just to protect his status or his comfort. Instead, he chose a path of radical self-denial, telling his students, "She cared for me fully and sacrificially all these years... It is not only duty, it is a great honor."

We see this same radical self-denial in Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. When he discovered Mary was pregnant before their wedding, he had every cultural and legal right to publicly humiliate her. Instead, to protect her, he resolved to quietly absorb the social scandal himself.

Adam exposed his wife to save himself. Joseph was willing to expose himself to save his future wife.

A consumer mindset asks, "What am I getting out of this?" A covenant mindset asks, "What am I giving to this?" True love isn’t a fair-weather feeling; it is the relentless pursuit of your spouse's well-being, even when it costs you your comfort.

What is one small, practical way you can choose self-denial and serve your spouse today?

"It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love."
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others." -Philippians 2:3-4

Press On,

Bro John

09/06/2026

For those of you who stayed up way too late last night 🐅 ....

Catch the service through our livestream this morning

https://www.youtube.com/live/f93h4lP6bao?is=G7xmfuzM20P0wqMC

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/06/2026

Istrouma Update: Click the link to see all the events and reminders. - https://mailchi.mp/istrouma/news-from-istrouma-7702638

09/06/2026

What if staying undecided about Jesus… is actually your decision?

John 7 this Sunday morning, 8AM or 10:30AM and live on YouTube.

09/04/2026

Have you ever tried to tell the Creator of the universe how to do His job? (Spoiler Alert: We all have)

Dear Christian,

College football is back in full swing (or maybe semi-pro football, LSU fans?). This means how a handful of young men run and throw a leather ball will determine the ultimate measure of happiness or sadness for millions of us from week-to-week for the next 4 months.

This also means living rooms everywhere are once again filled with armchair quarterbacks.

It’s third and long, the game is on the line, and the head coach calls a slow-developing draw play instead of taking a shot down the field. We immediately throw our hands up and yell at the television, absolutely convinced we know a better play call than the staff on the sideline.

We sit on our couches with zero actual coaching experience, looking at a limited camera angle, yet we are dead certain we see the whole field better than the guy holding the playbook.

How often do we treat God exactly the same way?

If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated with His timing or strategy, you are in good company. Some of the greatest heroes of the faith tried to Monday-morning-quarterback the Creator of the universe:

• Peter literally pulled Jesus aside to rebuke Him, deciding that the cross was a terrible game plan and trying to call an audible. (Matthew 16:22)
• Sarah decided God’s timeline for a child was taking entirely too long, so she ran her own “trick play” with Hagar—which resulted in generations of conflict. (Genesis 16)
• Martha scolded Jesus for showing up late to Lazarus’s deathbed, essentially saying, "If you had just followed my schedule, my brother wouldn't have died." (John 11:21)

They all made the same mistake we do: assuming that because they couldn't understand the play, the Coach must have lost His mind. But God reminds us in Isaiah 55:8-9: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

He is in the press box; we are on the turf. He sees the blitz coming before the snap. He knows the hidden schemes and defensive traps of the enemy that we cannot even perceive from our limited viewpoint.

When God calls a play that requires you to wait, to endure, or to take a hit, it isn't because He has lost control.

He is setting up something far greater further down the field. He promises He is working out all things together for your ultimate good and His glory (Rom 8). Just remember the ultimate good for you is to be conformed to the image of His Son (not your perpetual comfort).

True surrender isn't just praising God when you effortlessly cross the goal line; it is trusting His play calling when you get tackled behind the line of scrimmage.

Where in your life do you need to put down the clipboard and let God coach today?

"Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails." -Proverbs 19:21

"Faith is deliberate confidence in the character of God whose ways you may not understand at the time." -Oswald Chambers

Press On,

Bro. John

09/02/2026

Rule number 1: "Give the people what they want." And when the crowd starts to leave, you change the formula. But Jesus would rather lose this crowd than change His Gospel message...

09/02/2026

"He will abide in Me and I in him." Christianity is about our union with Christ.

09/02/2026

Not about a ritual

09/02/2026

From John 6 sermon last Sunday, The Most Unpopular Sermon Ever Preached

09/02/2026

The Beatitudes Part 8: Blessed are the persecuted…

The dirt floor of the stadium in Smyrna reeked of sweat and anticipation before the fire was even lit. The Roman proconsul glared at the eighty-six-year-old bishop standing in the center, threatening to unleash the wild beasts.

The old man simply replied, “Call for them, then.”

Next came the threat to burn him alive. Yet, the official actually wanted to let him go. It wasn’t a good look for Rome to torture an old man.

He offered a simple bargain: Swear by Caesar. Curse the name of Christ. Walk out alive.

Polycarp stared him down: “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Savior?”

Here in America, we will never stand in that kind stadium. We’ll never face a sword, a lion, or a flame for the name of Jesus. Because of this, Christians are sometimes accused of having a "persecution complex"—and to a degree, that is fair. We don't face hard, physical persecution (like many of our brothers and sisters in Nigeria, North Korea, China, Saudi Arabia, etc.).

We face a soft, velvet-glove approach.
But make no mistake: the velvet glove is suffocatingly effective.

The pressure to deny Christ today doesn't come from a Roman official; it comes from a cultural sneer. The world doesn't need to throw you to the lions if it can just embarrass you into silence. Out of all the belief systems globally, Christianity remains the most acceptable punchline. The faithful believer is routinely cast as a stereotypical trope: foolish, hypocritical, and intolerant. Hold to biblical truth in your workplace, classroom, or a comment section, and watch how quickly you are labeled a "knuckle-dragging evangelical" or told you are on the wrong side of history.

The culture constantly pressures us with the exact same deal they offered Polycarp: Just compromise a little bit. Laugh at the joke. Nod along with the secular narrative. Keep your Jesus quiet, and we'll let you keep your social standing.

When Jesus said, "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:10), He wasn't just talking to ancient martyrs. He was talking to the believer who endures the office snickers. The student who loses friends for holding the line. The Christian who withstands the constant, dripping disdain of a culture that mocks their King.

Soft persecution is designed to make you ashamed of the Gospel—and with 9 out of 10 professing Christians never sharing their faith, the tactic is working.

But like Polycarp, we can look at our King's track record of faithfulness to us and decide that temporary cultural approval simply isn't worth trading our eternal allegiance.

Your challenge this week is to endure this cultural friction with radical grace. We don’t fight the culture’s sneer with a snarl of our own; we fight it with a steadfast, unshakeable love.

“Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” - Matthew 5:10

“To be right with God has often meant to be in trouble with men.” - A.W. Tozer

Press On, Bro. John