First Baptist Church of Hartville MO

First Baptist Church of Hartville MO A mix of hymns and contemporary music prior to a life changing message every Sunday. Founded on September 24 1907.

Ladies - One text. One conversation. One simple, “Come sit with me!”You never know what God could do in someones life th...
09/14/2026

Ladies - One text. One conversation. One simple, “Come sit with me!”

You never know what God could do in someones life through ONE invitation. 🙌And tonight is perfect to invite a new friend or neighbor! 🎉

So send the text. Invite them. Save them a seat. You never know what could happen because you simply asked.

Who Am I?Moses had been a prince. He had been a fugitive. He had been a shepherd for four decades. And now God was askin...
09/14/2026

Who Am I?

Moses had been a prince. He had been a fugitive. He had been a shepherd for four decades. And now God was asking him to walk back into the most powerful court in the world and demand the release of an entire nation. But Moses could not get past the voice on the monkey bars. Every insecure whisper from his past was drowning out the voice of God in the present. Standing in front of a burning bush, speaking directly to the Creator of the universe, and the first words out of his mouth were: "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"

Exodus 3:11-12 "But Moses said to God, 'Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' And God said, 'I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain.'"

Notice what Moses is not asking. He is not asking about strategy. He is not asking about logistics. He is not asking when or how. He is asking who. “Who am I?” The doubt underneath the question is: I am not enough. I do not have what it takes. You have the wrong man.

Insecurity is not a personality trait. It is a universal condition. And it is the first thing God addressed when he called Moses.

But look at how God answers. This is the part that gets me every time. God does not say, "Moses, you are smart, you are capable, you are a natural leader." He does not build Moses up with a pep talk or a list of qualifications. He says four words: "I will be with you."

That is it. The answer to "Who am I?" is not a better resume. It is not a motivational speech. It is the presence of God. I will be with you. My presence is your qualification. My being there is the only credential you need.

Then God gives Moses a sign, but it is a strange one. "This will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship God on this mountain." The sign comes after obedience, not before. God is saying, "You will not get the confirmation before you take the step. You will get it after."

That is how faith works. You do not get the proof and then obey. You obey and then you see. You step out of the boat and then the water holds. You walk toward the giant and then the stone flies. You say yes to God and then he shows up in ways you could not have predicted. The confirmation is on the other side of the obedience. It always has been.

I think the reason insecurity has such a grip on so many of us is because we are looking for the sign before the step. We want God to prove it first. We want the resume, the endorsement, the guarantee. But God keeps saying the same thing he said to Moses: "I will be with you." That is the sign. That is the proof. That is enough.

The people God uses the most are not the ones who have conquered their insecurity. They are the ones who have learned to obey in spite of it. Moses never stopped being insecure. He made five excuses before he finally said yes. But he said yes. And that made all the difference.

My identity is not determined by who likes me or where I stand in the room. It is determined by the God who stands with me. And he has never once looked across the room and decided I do not belong.

Apply
Step before the sign – Identify one thing God has been calling you to do that you have been delaying because you feel unqualified. Take one concrete step toward it today, trusting that his presence is your qualification.

Pray
God, I confess that I live too often from a place of insecurity. I ask "Who am I?" when you have already answered that question with your presence. Forgive me for waiting on a sign instead of walking in faith. Thank you that you do not call the qualified. You qualify the called. Help me take the step. In Jesus' name. Amen.

09/13/2026

Join us now in John 10:10.

Take Off Your Shoes"Moses! Moses!"God called him by name. Not "Hey, you." Not "Shepherd." His name. Twice. There is some...
09/13/2026

Take Off Your Shoes

"Moses! Moses!"

God called him by name. Not "Hey, you." Not "Shepherd." His name. Twice. There is something deeply personal about the way God initiates this conversation. He does not begin with a command or a theological statement. He begins with a name. And Moses' response is just as striking: "Here I am." Three words. No qualifiers. No conditions. Just presence. I am here. I am listening.

Exodus 3:4-6 "When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, 'Moses! Moses!' And Moses said, 'Here I am.' 'Do not come any closer,' God said. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.' Then he said, 'I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.' At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God."

But then God says something that must have stopped Moses cold. "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Here is what I want you to see. Moses was standing in the desert. Rocky, dusty, sun-scorched desert. There was nothing sacred about the geography. No temple had been built there. No priest had consecrated the soil. No special ceremony had set this piece of ground apart from any other piece of ground in Midian. It was just dirt. But God was there. And that made it holy.

This is one of the most important truths in all of Scripture, and I think we miss it constantly. We keep looking for holy places when God is trying to show us that any place becomes holy when he shows up. It is not the building that makes the ground sacred. It is not the stained glass or the worship band or the padded pew. It is the presence of God. Period. When God is present, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. The dirt becomes holy ground.

Notice what God is really asking Moses to do here. Taking off your sandals in the ancient world was an act of humility and reverence. You removed the barrier between yourself and the ground. You made yourself vulnerable. You stood exposed. God was not asking Moses to perform a ritual. He was asking Moses to come humbly, without pretense, without the protection of his own self-sufficiency.

Then God identifies himself. "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob." He anchors his identity in relationship and history. He is not some unknown deity. He is the God who made promises to Abraham, who wrestled with Jacob, who provided a ram for Isaac. He is the covenant God, the faithful God, the God who has been working through generations to get to this exact moment, with this exact man, on this exact piece of ground.

And Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God. That is the right response. Not casual familiarity. Not small talk with the Creator of the universe. Reverence. Awe. The kind of fear that does not make you run away but makes you fall to your knees.

I think we have lost some of that in the modern church. We talk about God as our friend, and he is. We talk about his grace, and it is real. But somewhere along the way, we forgot to take off our shoes. We forgot that the God who loves us is also the God whose presence makes the ground beneath our feet holy. There should be moments in our lives where we are overwhelmed by who he is. Where we stop talking and start trembling. Where we hide our faces, not in shame, but in reverence.

Here is what I keep coming back to. God keeps showing up on in the ordinary. Your kitchen table can be holy ground. Your car on the morning commute can be holy ground. The chair where you sit to read your Bible can be holy ground. Not because of the furniture. Because of His presence.

Take off your shoes. He is here.

Apply
Create holy ground – Choose one physical place in your daily life and set it apart as a place where you meet with God consistently. It does not need to be special. It just needs to be intentional.

Pray
Father, I confess that I sometimes rush into your presence without reverence. I treat you casually when I should be in awe. Remind me that wherever you are is holy ground. Give me the humility to take off my shoes, to come to you without pretense, and to be overwhelmed by who you are. In Jesus' name. Amen.

SUNDAYS ARE BETTER TOGETHER. There’s a place for you here — whether you’re finding fellowship, growing in your faith, se...
09/12/2026

SUNDAYS ARE BETTER TOGETHER.
There’s a place for you here — whether you’re finding fellowship, growing in your faith, serving, worshiping, or taking your next step with Jesus.
See you Sunday!

9 am Connect Classes
10 am Worship, Message and Children's Church

Sand, Sheep, and SilenceForty years of the same routine. That is what Moses' life looked like on the back side of the Mi...
09/12/2026

Sand, Sheep, and Silence

Forty years of the same routine. That is what Moses' life looked like on the back side of the Midian desert. Get up. Walk the sheep to water. Move them to fresh grass. Protect them from predators. Bring them home. Do it again tomorrow. No headlines. No palace intrigue. No national cause to rally behind. Just sand, sheep, and silence. For forty years.

Exodus 3:1-3 "Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, 'I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.'"

I want to be careful here, because it is easy to romanticize the desert when you are not the one living in it. Nobody writes a worship song about boredom. Nobody puts "tending sheep in the middle of nowhere" on a vision board. Nobody looks at forty years of routine and calls it exciting. But that is exactly where Moses was when God showed up. Not in a cathedral. Not at a leadership conference. On the commute.

We keep waiting for the spectacular, and he keeps showing up in the ordinary. We are looking for the burning bush, and he is speaking through the basketball practice, the morning commute, the quiet moment after the kids go to bed.

Look at how the text describes it. Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. He led them to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. He was not on a spiritual retreat. He was doing his job. And then the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. The bush was burning, but it was not consumed.

I love how the text captures what happens next. Moses did not fall on his face immediately. He did not hear a voice yet. He simply noticed something strange and made a choice: "I will go over and see this strange sight." That decision to turn aside, to pay attention, to stop and look more closely, is what opened the door to everything that followed.

Here is the deal. God had been there the whole time. The bush was already burning before Moses noticed it. The question was not whether God would speak. The question was whether Moses would stop long enough to hear.

I talk to people all the time who tell me they are waiting on God. They want direction. They want clarity. They want the next big thing. And often, what I want to ask them is: have you stopped moving long enough to notice what God is already doing right in front of you?

Because that is the pattern of this passage. God did not send Moses an invitation. He did not pull Moses out of his routine and put him in a special location. He showed up in the middle of the routine and waited for Moses to turn aside. And when Moses did turn, when he took those few steps toward the fire, everything changed. Not because Moses was special. Because he was willing to stop.

Those forty years of sand, sheep, and silence were not filler. Every boring day tending someone else's flock taught Moses something he would need when he was leading two million people through the wilderness. Patience. Endurance. How to find water in dry places. How to keep going when nothing exciting is happening. The desert curriculum does not look impressive on paper, but it produces something that no classroom can replicate.

If you are in a season of sand, sheep, and silence right now, do not assume God has forgotten you. He might be burning right next to you, waiting for you to turn your head and notice.

Apply
Turn aside today – Set aside fifteen minutes of silence. No phone, no music, no agenda. Ask God to show you what he is already doing in your ordinary routine that you might be walking past.

Pray
Lord, forgive me for looking for you in the spectacular and walking past you in the ordinary. Open my eyes to the ways you are already at work in my daily routine. Give me the discipline to stop, to turn aside, and to pay attention. I do not want to miss what you are doing right in front of me. In Jesus' name. Amen.

From Somebody to NobodyExodus 2:11-15 "One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and w...
09/11/2026

From Somebody to Nobody

Exodus 2:11-15 "One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, 'Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?' The man said, 'Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?' Then Moses was afraid and thought, 'What I did must have become known.' When Pharaoh heard of this, he tried to kill Moses, but Moses fled from Pharaoh and went to live in Midian, where he sat down by a well."

Moses understood that walk. In fact, he lived it for forty years.

Look at what happens in Exodus 2. Moses had grown up in the palace of Pharaoh. He had the finest education in the ancient world. He ate at the king's table. He wore royal clothes. By every measure that mattered in Egypt, Moses was somebody. But he also knew something that made his comfortable life unbearable. The Hebrew slaves being beaten in the mud pits were his people. His blood. His family.

So one day, Moses went out to see them. He watched them at their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. And something snapped. He looked left. He looked right. No one was watching. So he killed the Egyptian and buried the body in the sand.

Think about that for a second. His heart was in the right place. The injustice was real. The oppression was brutal. But Moses tried to fix a God-sized problem with a man-sized solution. He lunged. He took justice into his own hands because waiting felt impossible.

The very next day, reality caught up with him. Two Hebrews were fighting, and when Moses stepped in, one of them fired back: "Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?" In one sentence, Moses' secret was public. His authority was rejected. And Pharaoh wanted him dead.

Moses ran. He ran all the way to Midian, to the far edge of the known world, and sat down by a well. That is the last image of Moses in this passage. Not standing on a palace balcony. Not commanding armies. Sitting alone by a well, in a land where nobody knew his name.

You've seen this pattern play out so many times. Someone sees something broken and decides they are the one to fix it. They send the confrontational email at midnight. They force the hard conversation before the other person is ready. They make the big move before God has opened the door. And then they spend months or years sitting by their own well, wondering how it all fell apart so fast.

Here is what I want you to notice about Moses' story. God did not waste those years in Midian. Moses spent forty years in the palace learning how Egypt thought. Then he spent forty years in the desert learning how to be a shepherd. God needed both versions of Moses. He needed the man who understood power, and he needed the man who had been emptied of it. The prince who grew up with Pharaoh understood leadership. The shepherd who spent four decades tending someone else's flock understood service. And you cannot deliver a nation without both.

The palace made Moses educated. The desert made Moses humble. And humility, not education, is what qualifies a person to be used by God.

If you are in a season right now where you feel like you have gone from somebody to nobody, let me tell you something. You might be right where God wants you. Not because he enjoys watching you struggle, but because he is doing something in you that can only be done when every title, every credential, and every advantage has been stripped away.

Moses walked back. All the way to the desert. All the way to nobody. And it was the best thing that ever happened to him, because God meets us at our lowest point and says, "Now I can work with you."

Apply
Release the outcome – Identify one area where you are trying to force something God has not initiated. Confess the impulse to control it. Ask him for the patience to let him lead, even if it means sitting by the well a little longer.

Pray
God, I confess that I grab for things that are not mine to grab. I see problems and I want to fix them on my timeline, in my strength. Forgive me for running ahead of you. Teach me that the desert is not punishment. It is preparation. I trust you with the wait. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Area men gather this evening starting at 6:30 for a fellowship meal followed by worship, devotional and prayer.
09/10/2026

Area men gather this evening starting at 6:30 for a fellowship meal followed by worship, devotional and prayer.

Find Your ElishaA famous psychiatrist was once asked, "What would you recommend to a person who felt a nervous breakdown...
09/10/2026

Find Your Elisha

A famous psychiatrist was once asked, "What would you recommend to a person who felt a nervous breakdown coming on?" Everyone in the room expected a long, clinical answer. Years of research distilled into a treatment plan. Instead, the doctor said simply, "Go home. Lock your door. Walk across the railroad tracks. Find someone in need. Do something for them." That was it. The cure for a breakdown is not to go deeper into yourself. The cure is to go outside of yourself and invest in someone else.

That is exactly what God told Elijah to do. After the holy hangover, the broom tree, the angel food cake, the cave, the question, and the whisper, God gave Elijah one final instruction that brought the whole recovery full circle: go find Elisha. Get up. Leave this mountain. Walk back into the world. And pour yourself into another person.

1 Kings 19:19-21 "So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. 'Let me kiss my father and mother goodbye,' he said, 'and then I will come with you.' 'Go back,' Elijah replied. 'What have I done to you?' So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his servant."

Notice the verb. Elijah went from there and found Elisha. He found him. God did not drop Elisha on Elijah's doorstep. He did not arrange a chance meeting at a coffee shop. He told Elijah to get up and go find him. That required effort. That required initiative. That required Elijah to do the one thing depression tells you never to do: move. Depression tells you to sit. God tells you to go. Depression tells you it is over. God tells you it is just beginning. Depression tells you that you are useless. God tells you there is someone out there who needs exactly what you have to offer.

Elisha was plowing a field when Elijah found him. Twelve yoke of oxen. This was not a small operation. Elisha was a wealthy farmer with a significant estate. He had employees, equipment, a family business. He was not sitting around waiting for a prophet to show up. He was working. And Elijah walked up to him and threw his cloak around him. That was the call. That was the prophetic equivalent of handing someone the jersey and saying, "You are on the team."

What Elisha did next still amazes me. He did not ask for a week to think it over. He did not negotiate terms. He killed his oxen, burned the plow, cooked the meat, fed the people, and left. He burned the equipment. That detail is everything. The plowing equipment was his Plan B, his safety net, his fallback career. When Elisha burned the plow, he was saying, "I am not going back. There is no retreat. The old life is done." He did not leave the door cracked. He burned it to the ground and walked forward.

God had an Elisha for Elijah. And God has an Elisha for you. Not just one, probably. Several. People who will walk beside you, serve alongside you, carry the vision when you are too tired to hold it. But here is the part we miss. God does not just throw these people in your life. He tells you to go find them. When you are feeling down and lonely and you think nobody is calling, nobody is reaching out, nobody cares, the answer is not to sit and wait. The answer is to get up, take some initiative, take some relational risks, and go find your Elisha.

People say, "I have been coming to this church for a while, but I have not met anyone." And I ask, "Have you joined a group? Have you served? Have you shown up anywhere other than the 10 am service?" The answer is almost always no. You have been sitting in the audience expecting community to come find you. But community is not a spectator sport. You have to get on the field.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, "Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up." Pity anyone. That is strong language. Solomon is saying that being alone when you fall is one of the worst conditions a human being can be in. And the antidote is not waiting for someone to show up. The antidote is building the relationship before the fall so that when it comes, there is someone there to reach down.

Elijah's story could have ended in a cave. It could have ended under a broom tree. It could have ended with a suicidal prayer in the desert. Instead, it ended with a man walking across a field, throwing his cloak around a farmer, and saying, "Come with me." That is the cure for depression that nobody talks about. Yes, rest. Yes, eat. Yes, listen for the whisper. But eventually, you have to get up and go pour into someone else. The inward journey must produce an outward step. God did not heal Elijah so that Elijah could sit in a rocking chair and reflect on his career. He healed Elijah so Elijah could invest in the next generation.

Find your Elisha. Take the initiative. Burn the plow on whatever is keeping you from moving forward. And trust that the same God who met you in the cave, fed you in the desert, and whispered to you on the mountain has already prepared someone who needs exactly what you have been through.

Apply
Take the first step – Identify one person you can invest in this week. Not someone who has it all together, and not someone who is looking for you. Go find them. Send the text. Make the call. Show up. Elijah found Elisha in a field. Your Elisha is probably closer than you think.

Pray
Father, thank you for not leaving me in the cave. Thank you for the bread, the rest, the whisper, and the purpose. Now give me the courage to get up and find the Elisha you have prepared for me. I do not want to hoard my healing. I want to invest it in someone else. Burn the plow on my excuses and move me forward. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Get your students here tonight to encourage them to become more fully devoted followers of Christ.Join your group for ev...
09/09/2026

Get your students here tonight to encourage them to become more fully devoted followers of Christ.

Join your group for everyone from knee high to tree high tonight starting at 5:45 pm with the Fellowship Meal followed by Worship and Devotionals.

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215 W South Street
Hartville, MO
65667

Opening Hours

Wednesday 6pm - 7pm
Sunday 9am - 11am
6pm - 7pm

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