First Baptist Church of Nickerson

12/02/2024

I would like to thank everyone who came out yesterday and participated in cleaning out and packing up. I am especially grateful for those of you who packed up and loaded my library. Truly, you went beyond the call of duty, and I felt your love for me yesterday. Wherever I go from here, I will remember you and what you've done for me. You, as a church family have blessed me in ways you cannot begin to fathom!

11/30/2024

To our church family, I have been asked to clarify something in regard to church property. If there is something at the church that is of sentimental value to you such as pictures or records, or even specific decorative items, by all means, we want you to have that, as those will likely have no intrinsic value to any other group that may begin to meet there. That does not mean we need to carry off the furnishings and empty the building. If another group is blessed to take up our former residence, we want them to have everything they need to help make their program a success!

Tomorrow, a number of us are planning to come to the building at 2:00 in the afternoon to help me pack up and load my books and other items. All are welcome! I am told there will be some leftover pie available, and if you have some you’d like to share, the more the merrier! Also, if you happen to have some good medium sized boxes you would be willing to donate to the cause, those would also be appreciated!

I look forward to seeing as many of you as are able and willing to come!

11/02/2024

10/26/2024

"It is greatly to be feared that there are multitudes in Christendom who verily imagine and sincerely believe that they are among the saved, yet who are total strangers to a work of divine grace in their hearts.

It is one thing to have clear intellectual conceptions of God's truth, it is quite another matter to have a personal, real heart acquaintance with it.

It is one thing to believe that sin is the awful thing that the Bible says it is, but it is quite another matter to have a holy horror and hatred of it in the soul.

It is one thing to know that God requires repentance, it is quite another matter to experimentally mourn and groan over our vileness.

It is one thing to believe that Christ is the only Savior for sinners, it is quite another matter to really trust Him from the heart.

It is one thing to believe that Christ is the sum of all excellency', it is quite another matter to LOVE HIM above all others.

It is one thing to believe that God is the great and holy One, it is quite another matter to truly reverence and fear Him.

It is one thing to believe that salvation is of the Lord, it is quite another matter to become an actual partaker of it through His gracious workings."

~ Arthur Pink, "Sincere but Sincerely Wrong"

10/26/2024

The following is attributed to Hank Walker:

Can you articulate the most important doctrines of the Christian faith?
If your pastor uses terms from the pulpit like justification, sanctification, propitiation, or atonement do you know exactly what he means, or is that just “theology talk” to you?
Over the past 100 years, the evangelical church has taken too many cues from public education.
Is it hard to understand? Does it cause division or upset feelings? Does it require hard work?
Well, we (evangelicals) have the answer… we’ll just dumb it down… or better yet we’ll do away with it! That way it will be easy for everyone!
After all, many aver, “Christianity is about a relationship—not all that religious stuff!”
Really?
If that’s what you believe, YOU may be why the church is so sick!
If you told the apostles that “Christianity is a relationship and not a religion,” they would either rebuke you strongly, or they would laugh you out of the room!!!
Christianity is, indeed, a relationship; BUT Christianity IS a religion; that is, one MUST ascribe to a clearly defined set of biblical beliefs in order to BE a believer.
Evangelicalism was established as a movement around the idea that faith should be gospel-centered (hence, the “evangel”—“good news” part). The idea was that we should minimize those things that cause division while preserving the essential truths of the faith.
The whole interdenominational/nondenominational church movement arose in the spirit of the evangelical movement.
BUT—here is the problem: when man starts to minimize things, he eventually eliminates those things completely. Whereas the original impulse of evangelicalism was to preserve the “essentials,” we have seen those churches evolve to a point where they have eliminated the essentials too!!!
NOW, we have so-called “life-giving” churches that do not teach enough for people to even be saved!
People are given the “opportunity” to be baptized if they “feel led” to do so—they are asked if they want to “ask Jesus into their hearts,” when no such language or command even exists in Scripture—they are included in the life of the “church” when they have not been vetted or interviewed thoroughly to determined that they even KNOW the Jesus with whom they supposedly now have a relationship!
SO… the so-called “evangelical” landscape is full of zealous, excited people running around talking a about a Jesus they do not even know!!!
Pray that God will Reform the church in America!
Reformation is needed today as badly as it was under the Roman Catholic apostasy of the 16th century!!!
~Grace & peace, y’all!
~HW

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.”
~Titus 2:1

10/09/2024

Church family, I have waited as long as I could, hoping I would get to feeling better, but it does not appear to be in the cards tonight. I really overdid it yesterday, and today I am in a tremendous amount of pain. My drugs are keeping me from screaming, for the most part. I do not feel as though I can drive out to the church safely this evening. For this reason I’m going to cancel our Wednesday service. I will copy this over to the page as well, but if those of you who see it would please pass the word along, I would appreciate it. Thank you for your understanding, and I look forward to seeing you all again on Sunday!!

09/27/2024

09/18/2024

Good afternoon!! A couple of items for this week.

First, Gabriele, Sophia, and I will be headed for Washington this Saturday! We are incredibly excited to be able to bring Sara home after a very long summer without her. I do believe the girls are just as fed up with Mr. Mom as I am! We will be returning home on Saturday the 28. We will be out for this coming Sunday. It has come to light that a large number of our regular attendees will also be out for varying reasons this Sunday. As a result, we have elected to cancel our Sunday services this week. If you would, go ahead and tune in to Bethlehem Baptist Church’s service. It will begin at 9:30, I believe.

Second, we will be having a men’s fellowship breakfast on Saturday October 5, at 7:00 a.m. more details will follow!

09/09/2024

Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I have a couple of quick announcements that I want to put forward churchwide.

Firstly, the girls and I will be gone Sunday September 22 and Wednesday September 25. We are headed up to Washington state because it’s finally time to go collect Sara and bring her home!! We are very excited about the trip, and we are going to make the return journey into a bit of family vacation and take the girls to some parts of the country they’ve never seen. I will have someone lined up to fill in for me on Sunday. Please continue to pray for us as we travel. You might also ask God to prevent us from being eaten by bears while we’re in Yellowstone, although there may be bonus points if we meet Yogi and his pic-a-nic baskets!

Secondly, I am trying to develop a bit of fellowship amongst our men. To that end, I’m looking at having a men’s fellowship breakfast at the church. Right now, I’m planning on doing this on Saturday October 5, the first weekend in October. This event is open to all of our men, and certainly any guests you’d like to bring along. If anyone has a conflict, please let us know. I am hopeful that this might be the first of many such events, either quarterly or monthly.

Lastly, I have been asked to adjust our regular Wednesday service time from 7:00 back down to 6:00 due to the amount of light in the sky! I am more than amenable to that, and look forward to seeing you at 6:00 this Wednesday!!

08/17/2024

If ever there was a week I felt this way as a pastor, this is the one.

In the evening I went to the meetinghouse ,and it looked to me near as easy for one to rise out of the grave to preach, than for me. However God afforded me some life and power ,both in prayer and sermon, and was pleased to lift me up and show me that He could enable me to preach!—David Brainerd

Pray for your pastor tonight, Beloved. It’s been a hard week.

08/11/2024

Come join us at First Baptist today as we take on the thrilling conclusion to our message on the Results of Being Spirit Filled!!