Both the downtown campus and Nocatee had exciting weeks of Glow Camp. Over 700 kids and students came together to hear God’s Word and learn to win the ultimate race. Jesus Christ has saved us through his life, death, and resurrection, and he enables us to grow into spiritual maturity. We want our kids never to give up and to serve the Lord with all their hearts! “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it” 1 Corinthians 9:24. The music for Glow Camp was produced “in-house” and is available to you and your family for free. You can listen to all the songs in the FBCJAX App. We already have the theme selected for next year, but we can’t announce it this soon! We look forward to all that God is going to do through...

On Sunday, July 21, at First Baptist, I announced that my young, unmarried daughter is pregnant. I love my precious girl more than I can communicate in words and would have preferred to keep this information private. However, the nature of my ministry means that the consequences of her private sin will be more public than it would be for most young women in her situation. I am sharing this information with the approval of her and the rest of our family. We all know that in short order, the nature of her sin will be obvious, but the nature of her repentance will not be unless you hear it from me. If you missed it, you can watch the announcement here: .embedtool {position: relative;height: 0;padding-top: 56%;overflow: hidden;max-width: 100%;} .embedtool iframe, .embedtool object, .embedtool...

Gentle parenting is a topic that inspires not much gentle debate. There’s actually a lot of disagreements out there about this. I have had, in the last week or so, an unusual number of people asking me about this. I don’t intend to do it full justice. I often remind you that we try to keep this around 10 minutes and so I can’t say everything; all I’m going to do here is have the very, very modest goal of pointing in the direction of what gentle parenting is, and given a few biblical thoughts about it, there will be more specific questions and more specific concerns. Here is what gentle parenting is, in fact, if I just ask you to consider whether or not you were spanked by your parents when you were growing up. It is probably the case that the number of you who would...

In 2016, I did not vote for Donald Trump. I didn’t vote for him because I knew he was lying. Listening to candidate Trump promise protections against the unborn and pledging to appoint originalist justices to the Supreme Court, I was convinced conservatives were being played. I didn’t believe for a minute that he would make good on his promises. I could not have been more wrong. In the years that followed the election, I watched Donald J. Trump be the most aggressively pro-life president in my lifetime. He stood for life and appointed the justices that overturned Roe. I was invited to the White House with other pastors to receive a briefing from senior officials about what the Trump Administration was doing to defend life. I was amazed. Over the years of Trump’s presidency, I wept tears...

Atheists are a small minority. They make up for about 3% of the population of our country. So why bother? Why should Christians take the time to learn a thing or two about the small percentage of atheists in our country? My goal is to show you that atheism is not something to be ignored and answering atheism is not a mere intellectual exercise. And I’m going to do that by sharing 5 reasons Christians need to answer Atheism. 1. We answer to speak truth in a world drowning in lies. While atheists are a minority, they are a loud minority. And they are especially influential among the “nones.” While most of our country is composed of religious people, the “nones” have been on the rise. These are the people who check “no religious affiliation” on polls, and they have grown to almost 30% of our...

I give you full permission to mock me, but one of my favorite songs growing up was “Friends” by Michael W. Smith. It had good lyrics and a great tune, and I was fascinated by the idea of having friends forever “if the Lord’s the Lord of them.” I came to know this song right about the time a close friend moved away, and this brought me comfort as I grew in my understanding of the body of Christ and the eternal relationships that Christians will experience. Friends are definitely a blessing from the Lord, and we can be thankful for these precious gifts throughout our lives. Out of the many things that can be said about this type of relationship, I want to highlight that friendship is hardwired into us as humans, and God has graciously given us instructions on how to be friends. What’s more,...

What Does Not Happen When You Die? There are so many future realities Christians are looking forward to in the afterlife, such as every tear being wiped away (Revelation 21:4), all sin and death being done away with (1 Corinthians 15:26), receiving our new bodies (1 Corinthians 15:50-55), and seeing Jesus face-to-face (1 Corinthians 13:12; Revelation 22:4). Christians are right to put their hope in Christ and eagerly await all of those glorious future realities that God has promised will come to pass. But all those specific truths, among many others, will not actually come to pass when we die. They will not be our experience right away when we die. Those specific promises aren’t fulfilled until Jesus returns! Some believers will still be alive on the earth when Jesus returns (1 Corinthians...

Does the Trinity really matter? This is a question that many people struggle to answer. Some say that the Trinity doesn’t matter because the word “Trinity” isn’t in the Bible. Others say the Trinity can’t matter because it is too difficult to understand. They’ll say, “If God really wanted the Trinity to matter in my life, he wouldn’t have made it so confusing! It feels like I have to solve an impossible riddle just to be an orthodox Christian!” Still, others say the Trinity doesn’t matter because it has no practical relevance for the Christian life. They wonder, “Why do I need to figure out how God can be three and one at the same time when I just want to have a good marriage or share the gospel with my neighbor or overcome this temptation I’m facing?” Considering these objections, here...

The 2024 meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention is in the books. Messengers approved many resolutions, elected a number of officers, listened to sermons, made countless motions, and referred the work of the Abuse Reform and Implementation Task Force (ARITF) to the executive committee. A lot happened, but I want to summarize the 2024 convention with three developments of tremendous significance. The President One of the most significant actions of the convention was to elect Clint Pressley as our new president. Pressley is a wonderfully faithful pastor and theological conservative who is committed to expository preaching and wants the SBC to refocus on our theological convictions and missional cooperation. This choice is so significant because the appointments that Pressley makes to our...

It is our mission to reach all of Jacksonville with all of Jesus for all of life. How much does Scripture address the issues related to “all of life”? All the wisdom we need for all of life can be found in Jesus Christ. All the wisdom needed for the Christian life is found in Jesus Christ alone, and it is him, his gospel, and his Word that we proclaim. Consider Colossians 1:28, which shows how the Christian has “all” wisdom in Christ. “Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ” (Colossians 1:28). This wisdom in Christ is sufficient to present everyone mature. This means that if there is an issue of sanctification, the Christian has all the wisdom necessary for it. We have released a series of four video essays on...