First Baptist Church Of Bogalusa, La

In this first message from a three part series entitled, Thankful?, Pastor Greg Whaley examines our natural desire to complain as a symptom of "unthankfulness" in our heart.  With tongue in cheek, we see five ways to be un-thankful.  Yet, when we see Philippians 2:14-15, those five ways to be un-thankful are unrolled into five ways to be thankful.  We learn that it is only possible to be un-thankful when our bibles closed!  This message was presented on Sunday, November 1, 2020. This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

Is life a sacred thing and if so, does that impact the way we live and move and have our being?  In today's teaching, Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to Psalm 139 to see how God sees life and how He is involved in it.  From this passage we learn there is no part of our lives on this earth that God doesn't care about.  We also learn there is no place we can go where God is not there.  And just as importantly, there is no time before or time after our earthly life when we are not in His heart.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 25, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

The book of Jonah does not end like a Disney movie.  It ends with Jonah messing up again, just like real life.  In this last sermon from the More Than Just a Fish Tale series, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 4 to learn the last lessons Jonah has to give in the book.  It is here we learn the work of God in and through us is never in vain.  We learn the whole of our lives is an object lesson in God's mercy.  We learn there is never a good reason to be angry about mercy.  Powerful truths!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 18, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

As we follow Jonah from disobedience to obedience, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 3, where Jonah finally does what He is supposed to do - He prophesies to Nineveh. Yet before Jonah can even make his way through a third of the city, Nineveh repents from the lowliest commoner to the King himself.  Through Jonah's experience we find that God was and always is a God of second chances, that the message belongs to God and obedience belongs to us, that there is no such thing as half repentance, and that God always recognizes true repentance and is faithful to save.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 11, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What would you say to God if you were stuck in the belly of great fish for three days?  Would you be angry?  Would you be hysterical?  In Jonah 2, we find the prayer of Jonah from inside the belly of the great fish.  In this prayer, Jonah thanks God.  He remembers a worse fate.  He promises to fulfill His vow.  We can do the same when we are in a place or a time of stillness and yielding.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, October 4, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening!

We often think our relationship with Jesus is a private affair that has no impact on others.  If we obey, if we do not obey, that is just between us and God.  In this sermon from the Jonah series, Pastor Greg takes us to Jonah 1 where even pagan boatmen are spiritually savvy enough to see that Jonah's disobedience has an out-sized effect on them.  Our disobedience can do the same to others around us.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, September 27, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

This teaching from Pastor Greg was presented as a part of a Lord's Supper service at First Baptist Church in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on Sunday, September 20, 2020.

As we follow Jonah in his attempted escape from God, God finds him in a big way on the sea route to Tarshish.  A storm batters the boat and, incredibly Jonah is asleep in the stern.  Pastor Greg helps us to see this as a picture of our spiritual condition when we are running from God.  How is that we are sleeping when there are so many storms around us?  We need to listen and follow the word of the Lord to us.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, September 13, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

We begin a new sermon series at First Baptist by going to the old testament book of Jonah.  Modern folks seem to have a complicated relationship with Jonah.  We tend to focus on the fish rather than the man.  Pastor Greg takes us to the opening verses of Jonah to help us see the foundation of disobedience that sets in motion all that is to come for Jonah.  Like Jonah, we would rather take the long road to Tarshish than to the short road to Nineveh.  But the yoke of obedience is always lighter than than the boulder of disobedience.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 6, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this last sermon from the Songs for the Journey series, Pastor Greg takes us to the last book in our scriptures.  In Revelation 15, we see the inhabitants of heaven singing between two very difficult moments - the great winepress of the wrath of God and the bowl judgments of Revelation 16.  What song can we sing when we are caught between a rock and hard place?  The song that is sung in heaven, no matter how bad it seems things are getting is always, "God is Great!" This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 30, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this bonus "Song for the Journey" Pastor Greg Whaley takes us to the monumental passage of scripture found in Philippians 2:5-11.  Jesus is not just Lord because He is one with the Father.  He is that, but this passage tells us He is Lord because He is willing to lay aside the God nature in order to take up the form of man.  As a man, He follows the will of His Father perfectly to the point of an death on the cross so that all men may know eternal life.  There is no other Lord like that!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 23, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

To sing of a King of Kings seem to be an outdated song for modern ears.  We do not have kings, at least not in any real sense.  Yet our hearts know we are made for a kingdom.  And the only King worthy of our total allegiance is Jesus Christ.  He is the one who holds and offers immortality.  He, Himself, is the access to an unapproachable God of the cosmos.  When we sing the song of the King of Kings, we are declaring to the world our faith - that which holds us together in the brokenness of the worldly empire.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, August 23, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What is good and pleasant in the world?  Psalm 133 says it is when brothers and sisters dwell together in precious unity.  In an age that celebrates polarization, a song of precious unity is sorely needed. Pastor Greg Whaley shows us how to sing its verses from Psalm 130.  Unity in the faith is a light to truth in a darkened world.  Unity is a picture of the abundance of God's love toward His children.  Unity is the fecundity of heaven on a barren world.  This teaching was preached on Sunday, August 9, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening.

The next song we are learning from our study of the Psalms of Ascent is the song of pardon.  Using Psalm 130 as the focus text, Pastor Greg Whaley reminds us that rather than singing the empty virtues of our fallen selves, we are to be singing a song of the goodness of our forgiving God in Jesus Christ.  Forgiveness is available to all and those who know how greatly they are forgiven live deeply in the kingdom of God! This message was preached on Sunday, August 2, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening.

In a world that almost demands one "make something of themselves" in order to be prosperous, Psalm 127 comes as a refreshing corrective.  Pastor Greg Whaley continues the Songs for the Journey series by reminding us from the scripture that apart from God, all our work is vanity.  God loves to give to His children and He measures prosperity in the world by our godly investments in our families.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, July 26, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

Psalm 126 is a joyful and exuberant song of praise to the Lord for His goodness.  In this teaching, Pastor Greg encourages us to learn the song of praise that we can always sing no matter what the circumstances are around us.  The follower of Jesus can always sing the song of praise for the great, overwhelming, cosmos-shaking, sin-rending, saving love of God toward us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is too good not to be true!  This teaching was presented on Sunday, July 19, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening.

What is that makes the believer different from the world?  It is the Jesus who is present with them every moment of every day.  In this next sermon from the Songs for the Journey series, Pastor Greg Whaley explores Psalm 125 to teach us a song of presence to sing in the undulating world in which we live.  Jesus' presence is an anchor for the soul, a guide for righteousness, and the giver of full and free life.  This message was preached on Sunday, July 13, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

In this next sermon in the series, Songs for the Journey, Pastor Greg takes us to Psalm 124 in order that we might learn to sing the song of power.  The Lord is on our side!  When we doubt this, it is because we are looking to the wrong thing for our source of power.  Without Jesus, we would truly be undone.  So, we bless Him for His mighty hand in our lives.  This teaching was presented on Sunday, June 28, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, LA.  Thank you for listening!

We sing about what we believe is important.  During these difficult times, there are lots of thoughts and words that come from anxiety and fear.  In the psalms of ascent, we see songs of faith and trust.  In this message, Pastor Greg teaches from Psalm 123 to remind us that we are to be people of prayer for whom prayer is not an accident or a last resort, but rather is the chief way we hear and respond to the world around us.  And so, we pray for great things from our Great God. We pray in dependence upon Him in persistence.  We pray in the humility befitting our place and His holiness.  This message was taught on Sunday, June 21, 2020.  This podcast is a part of the teaching ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!

What worries our hearts in times of great transition is often manifested by the words we speak or figuratively, the songs we sing to the world and to ourselves.  The ancient Israelites had a selection of songs they would sing as they made their way to Jerusalem for festival worship.  These psalms serve as the basis for a new sermon series from Pastor Greg entitled Songs for the Journey. In this teaching, Pastor Greg takes us to Psalm 121 to learn a song of God's provision for us in our time of need.  This teaching was presented at First Baptist Church on Sunday, June 7, 2020.  This podcast is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Bogalusa, Louisiana.  Thank you for listening!