Moravian Falls Baptist Church

Moravian Falls Baptist Church Pastor: Rev. Joseph (Joe) Sturgill
Music Director: Lauren Atwood
Pianist: Diana Perry Come worship with us! A place where God's love is evident!

Mark 11:25“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven ma...
06/07/2026

Mark 11:25
“And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying,” because standing was the usual Hebrew posture when petitioning God. Of course, this applies to all of us whenever we come asking anything of our God, no matter what position we choose to take while praying. Jesus said, while you’re praying, if you have anything against anyone forgive.

This is one of the primary and fundamental conditions necessary in order for our prayers to prevail. If, while we are praying, someone who has committed something against us or has caused us injury comes to our minds, instead of complaining to God about them, asking Him to avenge our cause, we must immediately, in and from our hearts, forgive that person.

We find in this statement a caution; we need to be careful about how we worship in our hearts. We can’t allow anything to remain undealt with in our hearts or lives that hinders us from being able to commune completely with God. He is more interested in communion than in ceremony because what He really wants is for us to fellowship with Him. God wants us to touch Him through prayer. He wants us to serve Him with all of our hearts. Prayer and worship are never to be mindless routine, merely going through the motions. They are to be a conscious act of coming into a divine encounter with the living God, an encounter that changes our lives a little more every time it happens.

“LORD, help us, as we seek fellowship with You this moment, to forgive that person we need to forgive. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”

06/07/2026

What It Is?

06/06/2026

Join us tomorrow as we honor some of our graduates. Some this week and some next. We are looking forward to congratulating them on their accomplishments.

Sunday School at 10 AM
Worship at 11 AM

Tomorrow's Message- "What It Is!" 1 Cor. 15

Mark 10:51–5251 And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto...
06/05/2026

Mark 10:51–52
51 And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.
52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

Don’t you love the question Jesus asked Bartimaeus, the blind man who was calling out to Him: “What do you want Me to do for you?” In fact, it is a question Jesus still asks men and women today. The Book of James says, “Ye have not because ye ask not” (Jam. 4:2). Did this blind man know what he wanted? You bet he did: “Lord, that I might receive my sight.” He asked for a miracle, believing that Jesus was both willing and able. Jesus’ answer was simple yet deeply insightful: “thy faith (kas) hath made thee whole (sozo).” This can be literally translated: “your faith has saved you.” Salvation is the ultimate “wholeness”.

Bartimaeus had both his physical and spiritual eyes opened at the same time. This outward physical healing reflected the inner healing of salvation. Bartimaeus then “followed Jesus in the way.” He left his old life behind, never to return. We can say with great confidence that Jesus heals people. Sometimes He does it through doctors, sometimes through friends, and sometimes through people we don’t even know.

There is an old, true story that took place in rural America, as thousands of GIs were returning home from WWII. When one young soldier arrived home in 1949, he found his mother deathly ill because of kidney problems. She desperately needed a blood transfusion. But she was AB negative, and no one else in the family had that blood type. Blood banks did not exist at that time, so the family had no options. The family gathered to pray and say their goodbyes. The heartbroken young soldier was driving home from the hospital when he saw a fellow soldier hitchhiking. He picked him up but was unable to hide his grief over his mother. The other soldier asked what was wrong, and after he heard the man’s story, he pulled out his dog tags. On his dog tags was his blood type—AB negative. Because of that hitchhiker the mother recovered fully and lived another 47 years. Some would say this was coincidence, but that soldier believed God sent the hitchhiker and often wondered if he was actually an angel. (I don’t know that angels have blood like us but I might be wrong.)

Whatever the case may be, these kinds of coincidences happen quite often in the lives of people of faith. Jesus still heals, just as He healed Bartimaeus 2000 or so years ago and millions of others since then. Sometimes the healing is spiritual, sometimes it is emotional, sometimes it is physical, and sometimes it is all three. You may not realize it but as a child of God you too may be exactly what God uses to bring healing to someone today.

“LORD, use us today so that someone might be healed through our lives, our words, or our actions.”

Mark 9:33–3533 And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourse...
06/04/2026

Mark 9:33–35
33 And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way?
34 But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest.
35 And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all.

The disciples’ argument was along the lines of “which one of us gets to be chief of staff in Jesus’ kingdom?” These arguments seem to rise up at the most inappropriate times imaginable. Jesus had just again reminded them of His coming death, but they were too busy positioning themselves for the earthly kingdom they were sure He was going to establish at any moment. They also probably wrongly thought that they were far enough away from Him that He couldn’t hear them. But Jesus knew what they were talking about and His question was also a rebuke. They probably felt like kids caught with their hands in the cookie jar, which is why they kept silent.

The Lord used this awkward moment to teach them something about true spiritual greatness in the kingdom of heaven. Attitudes of pride and power seeking have no place in the true believer’s life. The path to spiritual greatness is never paved over the backs of other people. Jesus’ statement, “he shall be last of all and servant of all,” must have sounded like a very strange paradox to their ears. It still sounds backwards in the world’s economy today, running counter to conventional wisdom. Jeremiah said, “And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not:” (Jer. 45:5).

Notice that Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be first.” This implies that ambition, in and of itself, can be a good thing. Why should we strive to be our best? We should seek to be the best our God can make us. But, if our ambition is for self-glorification and gratification, then it is coming against the kingdom of God. Jesus wasn’t criticizing the desire to be first, but He did carefully define what it meant to be first. If we are seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness and seeking to be great in our usefulness to Him, we are ambitious for a worthy thing. We are to become others-centered—servants to others. Contrary to both the 1st century and the 21st century, it is not how many serve us, but how many we serve.

“LORD, we desire to be useful servants in Your Kingdom. Please show us others who need us to serve them and then bless our lives so we can be a blessing to them.”

06/03/2026

The Life of the Apostles

Mark 8:22–2322 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.23 And he ...
06/02/2026

Mark 8:22–23
22 And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
23 And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.

Jesus took the blind man by the hand and led him away from the crowd in order to have time alone with him. This gives us such a caring picture of the Master as He personally took the man by the hand and directed him around obstacles in the path, telling him where to place his foot and where not to step. This should make us think of our own walk with the Lord. Captured in this healing story is a beautiful analogy to the very personal involvement of our Savior in every single human life that comes to Him. These details are meant to remind us that Jesus desires to take time with us as individuals, just as He took time with the blind man. And we all should desire, “Precious Jesus hold my hand, yes I need thee every hour.”

Jesus then did something unexpected; He spit on the blind man’s eyes and laid His hands upon him. God’s methods challenge any idea of a predictable formula. Jesus did not treat this blind man exactly as He had treated other blind people, like Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46–52). I am not gonna speculate on why Jesus would do this. That’s all it would be, speculation.

But I do know, God sees the details of each of our lives and custom tailors a perfect response fitted to our believing prayer. How personal and loving is our Lord.

“LORD, we are embarrassed by Your grace, mercy, and goodness extended to us. Father, You know our need before we ask, so we surrender to Your all-knowing and loving solution for our lives this day.”

Mark 7:26–2826 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil...
06/02/2026

Mark 7:26–28
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.
27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

In that culture, this woman, who was asking Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter, had 2 strikes against her—she was a Gentile and a woman. Matthew 15:22 adds that she was a descendant of the Canaanites, the people group that had enticed the Jews into idol worship in the Old Testament. Jesus noticed her persistence and desired to draw her faith out more fully. Their exchange is the subject of much debate, but a few important things are indisputable. Although Jesus at first seemed unkind when He said, “throw it to the dogs,” she heard something in His tone of voice or saw something in His mannerisms that made her realize He was leaving the door open for her. Maybe it was as simple as a twinkle in His eye. Again, we believe this is one of the many times Jesus was possibly smiling. He knew He was going to heal her daughter, but He was trying to build her faith.

Maybe you have had similar thoughts, something like, “the Lord is being difficult with me” or “why isn’t He answering my prayer immediately?” Could it be that He is doing something much deeper in you, seeking a prayer dialog between you and Him? Perhaps He is helping you to discover deeper faith through perseverance and what us old-time believers called prevailing prayer.

They may be principles you will need to help you not just with your present difficulties, but also in eternity to come. So, we try to never pray, “Lord get me out of this situation” or “get me out of these circumstances.” But rather, “Lord, Your will be done” or “Lord, show me.”

“LORD, help us to learn the lessons You are teaching us, so we don’t have to go around this mountain again or maybe help someone when they face this mountain too.”

05/31/2026

Youth Sunday

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1940 Moravian Falls Road
Moravian Falls, NC
28654

Telephone

+13366678690

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