Fresh Bread from the Pastor's Pen

Pastor Brandon discusses the current state of the church and explains that the root cause is a lack of reverence for God's holiness and a lack of understanding of the sinfulness of sin.

This blog post invites readers to reflect on the current state of the church. It addresses the decline in attendance, especially among older generations, while urging a return to reverence for God's holiness and sound doctrine. It challenges individual believers and the church to take these statistics seriously and respond with a renewed awe of God and repentance.

The blog post addresses the nuanced understanding of Heaven and our eternal existence, clarifying misconceptions often propagated in our culture. While acknowledging passages like Philippians 3:20-21 and 2 Corinthians 5:1-2 affirming our citizenship in Heaven, the post challenges the Platonic idea of an ethereal, disembodied existence.

Jesus calls for the church to recognize its mission to make disciples. Grace Bible Church exists to proclaim Christ crucified, relying not on human wisdom but God's power. Every believer is called to make disciples, and the church's ultimate purpose is to rescue souls from eternal separation from God through the message of the cross.

Pastor Brandon emphasizes the church's mission to exalt God by equipping the saints, as highlighted in Acts 20 and Ephesians 4. It explains that equipping involves restoring believers to a right relationship with God through the Word, fostering spiritual maturity, and protecting against false teachings. This article underscores the urgency of this task in today's world, where believers face significant challenges and deceptive influences.

Grace Bible Church's foundation is built on the apostles, prophets, and Christ as the cornerstone. Our mission? To exalt God by faithfully expositing His Word. We endeavor to preach the Word in every season!

This blog post highlights Grace Bible Church Gainesville's commitment to exalting God in all aspects of ministry. It emphasizes the church's Philosophy of Ministry, which includes expositing God's Word, equipping the saints, and evangelizing the lost. Drawing from Scripture, the post underscores the importance of glorifying God, recognizing His holiness, and enduring suffering for His sake, all while remaining focused on His sovereignty and will.

Social Media Summary: Sin can turn even the bravest Christian into a fearful wreck. In this powerful story, a WWII officer learns that his loss of faith was rooted in unconfessed sin. Hebrews 4:12-13 reminds us that God's Word pierces to the heart, exposing our hidden sins. Don't wait until it's too late—let God's truth cleanse you today. #Faith #Repentance #Hebrews4 #SermonOnTheMount

Suffering is a reality in the Christian life, but it is not without purpose. As believers, we are called to find joy in our trials, knowing that God is using them to perfect our faith and draw us closer to Him. Let's remember that our hardships are not in vain but are preparing us for the crown of life that awaits those who love the Lord.

This blog post discusses the dangers of allowing wealth to overshadow spiritual integrity in the church. Using real-life examples, it emphasizes that true wealth lies in faithfulness to Christ, not material riches.

In this blog post, Pastor Brandon explores the profound impact of persistent and effective prayer, illustrated by a story from the China Inland Mission. It delves into the biblical principles of righteous prayer, emphasizing the need for humility and alignment with God's will, as taught in James 5:16-18 and Matthew 6:5-8.

This blog post explores the power of prayer during life's trials, drawing from the examples of John Flavel and the Apostle Paul. It encourages readers to develop a prayer life aligned with God's will, trusting in His sovereignty even when facing overwhelming challenges.

This post reflects on how God uses difficulties to deepen our prayer lives, highlighting insights from the book of James and the example of Isaiah's simple, heartfelt prayer. It invites readers to embrace the trials that drive them to depend on God in prayer, preparing their hearts for a deeper understanding of prayer through Jesus' teachings.

Christians cannot use ignorance as their reason for not acting upon the truth. God will hold them accountable for their access to the truth and will hold pastors responsible for teaching biblical truth. Expository preaching gives God's people a weekly opportunity to hear the Scriptures read and explained so they will grow in their longing for the Word and their walk with Christ. In short, they will grow in knowledge and understanding, thus, fulfilling God's requirement of His teachers and His people.

We can define an expository sermon as text driven preaching where the point of the sermon and its outline are derived from the correct interpretation of the text of Scripture. The preacher arrives at the interpretation through careful exegesis using the literal, historical, grammatical method. In the act of preaching, the preacher carefully explains the God-intended meaning of the text giving its modern implications.

As our families and churches face significant headwinds in this culture, many Christians don’t know the answers to what they see in the culture because they have lost confidence in God’s word and don’t believe in its power to change our families and churches. In this post, Pastor Brandon shows the power of Expository Preaching to fortify our families and churches against this culture.

God's people long for challenging and life-changing preaching, even if they don't fully know it. Yet, most cultural Christians would request a topical sermon packaged in a bite-sized, easily digestible form. In other words, they want a magic pill. In this post, Pastor Brandon explains why expository preaching benefits God's people.

Christians must know that God has given us everything we need, starting with eternal life. This incredible truth ought to be enough to cause us to praise Him and give thanks to Him in all we do!

We all can struggle with knowing what to do in life. Some of our youth here struggle to understand what college to attend, whether to attend college, go into the military, or work in a trade. In life, it's okay to struggle to get on the right path, especially when you're young. Looking back on my life, I struggled to find the right direction. Yet each move was ordained by God, who guided our family. I'm sure if you look at your life, you can see many of the same things.

As we move forward, there will be continued pressure for Grace Bible Church to change with the times. This pressure originates from our surrounding culture, but there is more than a subtle push to change from within the church. On the one hand, we understand that change in the church is like the seasons. Our ministry is in a constant transition, with people coming and going. On the other hand, we know that not all change is biblical. Therefore, how are we to evaluate our current path and direction as a church? How are we to assess each ministry in the church? These questions underscore our need for a biblical Philosophy of Ministry (POM).

Wea need to harness the power of masculinity so our families, church, nation, and the world all benefit. Indeed, as we face significant headwinds in our culture, we may find ourselves begging the men to return! If they don't, the blood will continue on our hands.

If you are enduring some trial, I encourage you to consider the joy of having the Holy Spirit dwelling in you! I pray that you will not bitterly complain but will be thankful for the growth in your walk with Christ.

Have you trusted in Jesus's life, death, and resurrection? If so, you will not hear those dreadful words, Depart from Me, on that final day! But the sweet sound of the Savior's voice saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"

Suffering and death have been part of man's existence from the time of Adam and Eve. They are so ingrained into our lives that many believe they are natural, yet they are our enemies. We have a hard time imagining a life without them as our constant companions. Even with our modern technology, we cannot beat them.

Pastor Brandon wrote this article in August of 2017 and it was published on our website on October 9th, 2019. It is even more applicable today in the wake of Covid19 and considering the situation in Afghanistan.

Unless you have been living under a rock, we live in a divided country. Sadly, those divisions have extended into Bible-teaching churches. We have chosen to take sides within the body of Christ on political topics of the day. We cannot ignore that one of the main divisions has been over Covid19. As such, there seem to be two main camps within our country and the church. The question is: how do we think critically to arrive at biblical responses to Covid19 and other questions facing the church?

The coming kingdom reign of Christ should serve as motivation for our faithful service now as the church, and as each of us faces persecutions from Satan and the world

An excerpt on Pastor Brandon Phillips' sermon on Ephesians 6:4

Why are your sermons so long and complicated? Periodically, I receive this question from well-meaning brethren. Believe me, I take these inquiries to heart!

Next to marriage, parenting is one of the most challenging tasks we can do. You’ve heard it said, “They don’t come with an owner’s manual!” Well, that’s not true. The Bible has much to say about parenting your child if we will only listen and obey it. What’s more impressive, scripture is incredibly brief in its prescription for great parenting.

Written here is the salvation story of a man I know very well. By God’s grace, he is still a devoted follower of Christ over 20 years later. He remains married to that pretty girl

God created us as male and female, and while there are many similarities, we are biologically different.

The promise of eternal life demonstrates that Jesus intends to fulfill His promise not to cast out anyone who truly comes to Him. Therefore, if we are true believers, our eternal security is firmly in the hands of the Father and the Son! No one can remove us from His eternal grip.

How blessed is the man who has made the Lord his trust, And has not turned to the proud, nor to those who lapse into falsehood. David says that we will be blessed or happy when we make Yahweh our trust. Therefore, we must not trust in worldly things – these will inevitably fail us. We can trust in the Lord because He is in full control of the world and our lives.

The unity of the body of Christ is at the heart of Paul’s exhortation to the church. In doing so, he appealed to non-negotiable truths of the Christian walk. As believers, we should always be encouraged in Christ, finding great comfort in our love for one another, and enjoying relationships which are empowered by the Holy Spirit.