First Baptist Family of Asheboro, NC

I was reminded this past week of a thought.  I grew up in a very conservative church.  My first sermon was red faced screaming hell, fire and brimstone.  There was a lingering sense that God is mad at us.  This past week I was reminded of a simple truth: the wrath of God was satisfied because Jesus took the wrath of the Father upon Himself and we are justified.  It's true.  Jesus absorbed that wrath and we are not set apart for the wrath of God.  This is hard to grasp if you grew up like I did.  There's a release to know Jesus came for us.  This is Holy Week.  Jesus took our place and that means  a lot for our spiritual well-being. Today we focus on Joseph of Arimathea (Joe) in Luke 23:50-55.  We're going to take a closer look at Joe, who showed up.  Looking at Joe has changed my perspective.  We tend to naturally gravitate towards bad things but there's some really bright spots around the cross.  Have you ever gotten some help unexpectedly?  I was at a store trying to

Have you ever been wrong before?  Rightfully wrong?  I've experienced this in my March Madness bracket this year.  I've been wrong.  It's a year for the underdogs.  Sometimes we're wrong and when we realize it's a good thing.  The Centurion was glad to discover he was wrong.  Today we're in Luke 23:44-47 seeing what happened in the life of the Centurion at the cross.  The Centurion was in charge of crucifixion, but as he led something changed.  What changed is representative of what happens in our own lives.  We want people to understand Jesus is our Savior.  Maybe you have been searching out who Jesus is?  We can find Jesus in a variety of ways.  Some have found Jesus through a sermon by Billy Graham through preaching, some through singing but God also uses other things that happen in our lives to speak to us.  Today we notice the things God used to speak to the Centurion.  Let's think about the kinds of things God uses to bring someone to Jesus.  We also n

Monologue by the Thief on the cross: I'm confused.  Maybe you can help me.  What is Daylight Savings Time?  In Heaven the Son shines all the time.  I am a citizen of Heaven.  I'm remembered as being crucified with Jesus.  I was the one crucified on the left of Jesus.  There's so much I can share with you.  I'm in Heaven now and I have a wonderful life now but my life wasn't always that way.   Our hearts become hard.  Life is difficult.  Jesus and I went through trials together.  We were sentenced to die together.  I was crucified before Jesus was.  Nobody made a big deal about my crucifixion but all these people had gathered because of Jesus.  I never trusted any of the religious leaders.  I wondered what the religious leaders were doing at a crucifixion at Passover!  It's Passover and they're around dying people.  It wasn't right.  The people were mocking Jesus.  He claimed to be the Messiah.  Life is hard and our hearts can become hardened.        

  Today we begin our Easter services and for the next four weeks we'll be at the cross on an emotional journey for us.  You'll feel some different emotions.  Sometimes when I think about the cross I feel many different emotions.  Sometimes  I feel angry.  Sometimes  I feel sadness.  Sometimes I feel joy.   It's hard for me to express emotions early in the morning.  I get up early but I'm not a morning person.  My wife Nancy is a morning person.  She wakes up smiling and happy.  Sometimes  I'm reminding her I'm not a morning person.  It takes me awhile in the morning. This is a very deep and impactful passage.  There's a lot of different characters at the cross.  There were a lot of people gathered around the cross.  Good character development is crucial for a good story line.  The first time we saw Snoopy we knew he wasn't an ordinary dog.  Luke does an excellent job painting this picture for us.  We get a fuller idea of what's happening.  We get a f

Today is our final message in Colossians, a letter to new believers.  It's about how we do the work we are called to do.  We don't always realize that Paul had a team of people around him in ministry.  Today we'll gain insight about Paul's team.  We're in the middle of basketball season.  Some teams have a superstar player that gets all the attention but we know it takes a team.  A team is only as good as how well they work together.  Paul tells us they were together in ministry.  Some of them were more out on the forefront speaking.  Others were behind the scenes.  Paul gives us insight on how to work together as a team to do what God has called us to do.  They were doing life together.  Paul was the first multi-staff church model.  We see different people doing different things as they do life together.  The first group Paul writes about is the pastors. Pastors do life together.  The word used here to refer to pastors in verses seven and nine is the word "b