Bethel Baptist Church

04/17/2025

Dear brethren and friends. I'm currently moving sermons off of this account to a YouTube page and hope to eventually start teaching more via that platform.

If you'd like to follow the sermons there and any future videos and teaching, please visit: www.youtube.com/

Thank you all for your support and prayers. My family and I have so many of y'all in our hearts and we send our love.

A pilgrim hoping to love and serve God and neighbor. I've studied, worked, studied, pastored, and now I'm studying again, while always laboring. I've lived 10 years overseas. I'm posting clips from previous sermons. Hopefully I will post some new thoughts on theology, worship, life, and this common....

01/26/2025

If you're looking for a Bible-believing Church this morning and you're in Southport, Oak Island, Boiling Springs Lake or any of the surrounding area; come worship with us at Bethel Baptist Church on 1628 N Howe Street in Southport.

Sunday school: 10am
Worship services: 11am

Hope to see you there - In Christ.

01/25/2025

Brothers and sisters of Bethel Baptist Church; prepare your heart for Lord’s Day worship tomorrow and for sharing in our Lord’s Table.

Holy Communion allows us the privilege to draw near to our God in Christ. We remember from hearts torn for our sin, yet gladdened in the salvation that Jesus Christ offers to poor sinners.

We feast on Christ by faith.

Ps 34:8- “O taste and see that the Lord is good: Blessed is the man that trusteth in him.”

The Apostle Paul exhorted the Corinthian church to examine themselves prior to the table and that same exhortation applies to us today. Examine yourself in light of God’s holiness and your own sinfulness.

1 Cor 11:28- “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.”

Preparation would involve repentance of sins. Ask the Holy Spirit to confront you with His Word. This requires prayer, thoughtfulness and quietness.

1 John 1:9- “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Hear God’s righteous demands, thundered out from Mt. Sinai and see your own guilt.

Hear Christ’s gracious invitation of salvation to sinners; made evident in the Lord’s Table by His torn body and shed blood and flee to Christ. He’s promised to save all who come to Him by faith and repentance.

Mt 11:28-30- Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

May God bless you in preparation and bless His Lord’s Day worship tomorrow at Bethel Baptist Church.

12/15/2024

"Ps 92:12-13: The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the house of the LORD Shall flourish in the courts of our God."

Has the church become loose with worship and our public service to God?

Are our families paying the spiritual price because grandfathers and fathers decided something was more important on the Lord’s Day than drawing near to the living God in the public assembly?

If you find that’s the case in your own life; Christ Jesus by His Word and Spirit still call all to “come”.

By the power of Christ’s promises in the gospel, we can rebuild what the locusts have eaten. If you’ve grown cold in your worship pray the Lord to light your flame and give you a zeal for the service of Christ and for eternity to come.

Public worship gives the believer, the seeker, the sinner the opportunity to draw near to God in the midst of His people. Jesus Christ came to save His people and present His Church as a chaste Bride.

Bethel Baptist Church in Southport gathers tomorrow on the Lord’s Day at 11am for service. Come ready to draw near to God.

“1 John 1:5-7 - This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

11/09/2024

Ps 67:4 “O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.”

Christ Jesus is Lord over all. He rules over the nations, over the Church, over your family and over your individual heart.

We’re called to worship him.

It’s our privilege to gather with the saints on His Lord’s Day and stand in the congregation. Christ stands with us. In a great mystery, as we stand before heaven and worship God Eternal, the Son of God, by His Spirit is in our midst making right offering to HIs Father. He assists us in worship (see Heb 2:11-15).

Gathering with the children of God requires reverence, holiness and repentance.

Gathering with the children of God gives gladness, refreshment and increases our hope in the One who died for all, Jesus.

Ecc 5:1-2 “Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”

Prepare your hearts for Lord's Day worship.

11/06/2024

On Wed @6 to 7pm (approx) Bethel Baptist in Southport: hymn singing, preaching through Psalms, and group prayer.

Best place to be.

Come, worship and gather together before the living God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

11/06/2024

Micah 6:8 - "He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; And what doth the LORD require of thee, But to do justly, and to love mercy, And to walk humbly with thy God?"

Thanks be to God for His good hand, may His church be found laboring for King Jesus and may God bless America on this new morning.

11/05/2024

Is 3:12 - As for my people, children are their oppressors, And women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, And destroy the way of thy paths.

Pr 14:34 - Righteousness exalteth a nation: But sin is a reproach to any people.

Vote today in a way that bespeaks the reign and Lordship of Jesus Christ. One side loves sacrificing to Molech and will fight for it (2 Kings 17:17). The other side by no means perfect, yet stands for the righteousness, judgment and virtue more so. Notice I said "more so". We are called to make discerning judgments, to discern the righteous from the wicked and called to have distinguishing palates.

We've only got 2 choices; which choice points in clearer way to light, righteousness, and the path to life? Which path is endorsed by Hollywood, Planned Parenthood, and every form of rank ungodliness?

God have mercy on the United States of America and may God bless America.

10/19/2024

Does the sense of Holy Scripture and the life of Christ manifest in my life? Am I trusting in the promises of Christ? Do I love my neighbor?

These are the kinds of questions Christians should ask as they examine themselves before the Lord's Table (1 Cor 11:28).

Christ is King, the Church is His Body, His Kingdom is coming, Jesus Christ is the head who gives orders (Mt 20:15)…are we in obedience or do we kick against the goads?

The Spirit call us to the Lord’s Table tomorrow am at Bethel Baptist Church. Read 1 Cor 11:17-34 this evening and in the morning. Come with hearts afflicted for sin, bring your trials, deep grief…looking to Christ for refreshment, gladdening and strengthening in so great a salvation.

Matt 11:28-30 - “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

To God be the Glory.

10/12/2024

John 17:17-19 - “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.”

The Church of Jesus Christ should be the custodian of truth on the earth. Christ Jesus pleaded with the Father that all of His own would be sanctified by truth - the Word. He went to “sanctify himself” via his painful and shameful death on the Cross that we may be sanctified.

This sanctifying of himself was his own offering up of himself for pitiful sinners.

The Church, clinging to his Word, the Word of truth will be ready for this sanctification; hardship, sacrifice, picking up of our cross and standing for truth. Bathed in the Word of God, the disciple is to seek not their own, but Christ’s.

Are we answering his call to be a sanctified people?

Are we seeking the things that are Christ’s?

Do we want His joy, His peace...or the World's?

Tomorrow is the Lord’s Day - prepare your heart and mind for worshipping the Living God. Bethel’s worship in Southport begins at 11am.

1 John 5:20-21 “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.”