First Baptist Nixa Podcast

The foundation of grace is connected to the pinnacle of glory by means of an unbreakable chain of events described in v. 30. All who are predestined for glory will be glorified.

The promise that God works all of your groanings for your good rests upon the foundation of God’s foreknowledge and predestination.

We don't have to know the will of God in order to pray effectively. All we have to do is trust Him. Groan to God (pray in weakness) and trust Him (pray in faith) to do what is good (pray in hope).

In verses 17-18, Paul established the normalcy and necessity of suffering. In verses 19-25, he places our suffering in a cosmic context, showing how our suffering fits into God’s plan to display His glory before all creation.

Those who will inherit God’s kingdom with Christ are the children of God who suffer with Christ (v. 17), and the way to suffer with Christ is to suffer as Christ did – by considering the coming glory as far outweighing the present pain (v. 18).

Only the children of God are the heirs of God. The slaves of God will inherit nothing. So the question is, are you a son or a slave? In Romans 8:14-17, Paul provides three evidences of the children of God by which we may know.

New Testament Christianity is a radically different way of life, a life lived by the power of the Spirit.

Only those who are personally indwelt by the Spirit, and powerfully led by the Spirit to presently walk by the Spirit, will be raised by the Spirit to everlasting life on the last day.

Whether God raises you from the dead unto everlasting life depends entirely upon whether you are in the flesh or in the Spirit, whether or not the Spirit of Christ dwells in you (v. 9-11). But can you know? Verses 5-8 provide an answer.

You are free from both the penalty and the power of sin, if you are in Christ by faith and walk by the Spirit.

Life will surely bring times of challenge and tribulation. Have you lost your joy? Psalm 103 highlights the benefits of God for those who fear Him. Instead of being downcast, be renewed by praising the Lord for who He is, and what He has done.

The LORD will bring you through life and death into an eternal inheritance of blessing and joyful praise, if you acknowledge and trust in His absolute sovereignty as the one true and living God, and love and long to see His glory manifested in His covenant love for His people.

God is both unimaginably great and gracious and we are to praise His name from this time forth and forevermore.

Is it right to pray for God's judgment upon the wicked, particularly those who have deeply wronged us? In Psalm 7, David takes comfort in God's righteousness and prays for God's justice, while modeling for us how we ought to do the same.

Acknowledge your sin, believe that God will hear and answer your cry for mercy and cleansing, confess your sins to God, delight again in your salvation, evangelize through word and song, and finish well your Christian pilgrimage.

The Bible speaks of saving faith in terms of present affections rather than past decision. A Christian is one who experiences desire, delight, love, and joy in God. Psalm 16 is the prayer of a man who expresses all those affections and more.

Psalm 19 is intended to prove that the idolatry and irreligion of mankind are inexcusable. The author of Psalm 19 considers both the works of nature, and the words of divine revelation as perfect laws of the same hand, standing firmly by the same authority; both containing instruction for the entire world, and restoration for God’s particular people.

Psalm 145

This summer we will find our rest in the Psalms. The Psalms are a gritty, personal, unfiltered record of what happens when frail and fallible humanity intersects with the majestic and sovereign, holy and righteous, gracious and merciful God. These pages are filled with praise and lament, laughter and tears, hope and despair, and everything in between. In other words, they are filled with real life, but real life lived before the face of God.

The aim of Vacation Bible School is the aim of the Scriptures… that we may believe in Jesus.