Life Matters

Where Is God When I Feel Forsaken? Psalm 22

This is the message from our Resurrection Celebration. 

Have You Heard? Great Things Are Happening!

The young lady had never attended ANY church until she came to Fort Caroline Baptist Church a few weeks ago. She really did not want to be here, but she came at the invitation of friends who are members of the church. She was apprehensive at first, not knowing what to expect. “Will people judge me? What do they do in church? What if I don’t like it?” She said as she sat in the worship service she found her heart strangely warmed. The people were friendly. The music moved her. The message spoke to her in a way she could understand. Tears welled up in her eyes. She could not explain what she was feeling. Her husband leaned over and whispered in her ear, “That’s the Lord you feel.” She has since trusted Christ as her Lord and Savior and was baptized on April 17 along with five other people! There are tears in my eyes as I write these words and think about the many lives being changed through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Thank you for being such a caring congregation. Thank you for living as missionaries in your community, reaching and relating to people who need Jesus. Thank you for following my leadership as your pastor. God is blessing our congregation in unprecedented ways! More people are attending worship than ever before! We have baptized more people than ever before! We are breaking record attendance in LifeGroups! During the worst economic recession since the Great Depression you have given record amounts of money to fund life-changing ministries and mission efforts! Not a week goes by that I do not hear from someone who says God has changed their life since discovering Fort Caroline Baptist Church. Thank you for all you do and for all you sacrifice to help people come to Christ.

Resurrection Celebrations At Fort Caroline Baptist Church

Nearly 900 people worshipped with us last Easter. So this year we are making room for all the people who will worship with us by offering an additional service. The times of EACH worship service will be different than the usual schedule. Here is the schedule for Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011. Each service is an hour long, gives a fifteen minute transition, and concludes before noon.

1.Classic Worship: 8:08 to 9:08 (No child-care available)
2.Blended/Contemporary Worship: 9:23 to 10:23 (child-care available, Early LifeGroups/Worship/Children's LifeGroups)
3.Blended/Contemporary Worship: 10:38 to 11:38 (child-care available, Late LifeGroups/worship/Children's LifeGroups)

I am beginning a new sermon series on Easter. The title of the series is, "Where Is God?" We all face times in our lives when God feels a million miles away. This is certainly true during the trials and tragedies of life. The good news is God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. In this series we will discover how to live by faith in the God who is always with us. This week's message from Psalm 22 is, "Where is God when I feel forsaken?" Please begin now inviting your friends and neighbors to join you on Easter at FCBC! Please remember to reserve the guest parking for first-time guests. Park as far from the buildings as possible in order to give the best parking to our guests and others who need to park close by. Warmly welcome people you meet. Sit up close in the worship center and make room for others. Most of all, worship God and expect Him to do great things!

Easter Service Schedule At Fort Caroline Baptist Church

These are exciting days at Fort Caroline Baptist Church. More people are attending our church services than ever before. Isn't it great to be a part of a church family that loves God, loves others, and serves the world? I am especially excited about what God will do in our lives as we gather on April 24^th to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. Nearly 900 people worshipped with us last Easter. So this year we are making room for all the people who will worship with us by offering an additional service. The times of EACH worship service will be different than the usual schedule. Here is the schedule for Easter Sunday, April 24, 2011. Each service is an hour long, gives a fifteen minute transition, and concludes before noon.

1. Classic Worship: 8:08 to 9:08 (No child-care available)
2. Blended/Contemporary Worship: 9:23 to 10:23 (child-care available, Early LifeGroups/Worship/Children's LifeGroups)
3. Blended/Contemporary Worship: 10:38 to 11:38 (child-care available, Late LifeGroups/worship/Children's LifeGroups)

I am beginning a new sermon series on Easter. The title of the series is, "Where Is God?" We all face times in our lives when God feels a million miles away. This is certainly true during the trials and tragedies of life. The good news is God has promised to never leave us nor forsake us. In this series we will discover how to live by faith in the God who is always with us. Take a look at the message titles and Scriptures. Please begin now inviting your friends and neighbors to join you on Easter at FCBC!

1. When I Feel Forsaken? (Psalm 22) Easter, April 24

2. When I Feel Frightened? (Psalm 34) Senior Adult Day, May 1

3. When I Feel Unimportant? (Psalm 139) Mother's Day, May 8

4. When I Feel Guilty? (Psalms 32 & 51) May 15

5. When I Feel Tempted? (Psalm 119:9-11) May 22

6. When I Feel Peer Pressure? (Psalm 1) Memorial Day weekend, May 29

 

The Ultimate Victory (An Easter Sermon)

 

The Ultimate Victory 20100404am

 

I Need Your Help

 Dear Fort Caroline Baptist Church family,

Your church is getting ready for an exciting Resurrection Celebration this weekend on April 4^th.  (Services at 9:00 A.M. & 10:30 A.M.) We are mailing out Easter invitations to all the new people who are moving in to our area. We are using the church sign and publications to invite people to our services. Here is my question for you. Have you invited anyone to come with you yet? Did you know that 80% of the people who visit our church for the first time do so because they were personally invited by a member? Many of your friends, relatives, associates, and neighbors will come to church if you will invite them. In fact, a recent study conducted by Tom Rainer indicated that many lost people wonder why their Christian friends never invite them to church. He found that 9 out of ten of them would likely attend if they were invited. Rainer then commented:

The next obvious question is: Are Christians inviting non-Christians to church? The heartbreaking answer is "no." Only 21 percent of active churchgoers invite anyone to church in the course of a year. But only 2 percent of the church members invited an unchurched person to church. Perhaps the evangelistic apathy so evident in many of our churches can be explained by a simple laziness on the part of church members in inviting others to church.

Don't let apathy and laziness stop you from inviting someone to church this weekend. It could be a life-changing day for them!

This year I will be speaking on “The Ultimate Victory.” It is a message of encouragement that I’ve written to show how Jesus' resurrection means we don't have to fear death. In fact, death will be defeated when our earthly bodies are made fit for our heavenly home! You can read about it in 1 Corinthians 15:50-58.

Who of your relatives, neighbors, and co-workers do you want to see come to Christ this Easter?  People are more likely to be open to your invitation at Easter than at any other time of year. Don’t miss this once-a-year opportunity to invite them to one of our church services!

Here’s how you can fulfill your mission at Easter:

1. Ask God to show you who to invite. 
2. Use the "E-Vite" Card we designed by e-mailing it to your friends.
3. Help your Life Group contact everyone on your class ministry and prospect roll with an invitation to Bible Study. 
4. Pray that many will commit their lives to Christ this Easter.
5. Pray for God to use me to communicate His Word. 
6. Greet everyone around you. There will be a lot of first-time guests. Please help them with directions. 
7. Reserve the “Guest Parking” for guests! (Isn’t that a novel idea?) Consider parking in the back of the property in order to give our guests and senior citizens the best parking spaces near the Worship Center.

This Easter we are planning our greatest service ever. I am SO excited about it I can hardly sleep! The music we’ve planned is incredible! Thanks for your prayers. It’s going to be an amazing day!  I love you so much and am so grateful to be your pastor.  Let’s each “Reach One More ... for Jesus!”

Because He lives,

Pastor Ricky

My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

I apologize for the delay in posting lately. Life has been a little on the hectic side. Anyway, you can click the button and listen to last Sunday's message, "Cries From the Cross." My text was Mark 15:22-37 (even though I said Matthew a couple of times at the beginning!). I was personally touched and humbled in my study time as I considered Jesus' cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken Me?" I will never understand what the Lord Jesus endured to purchase my salvation. I hope this message will inspire you to love Him even more for what He did for you.

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A Great Tool For Inviting Your Friends To Our Easter Services

We will celebrate the resurrection of our Savior on April 4. Who will you invite to join us? Many of your friends and neighbors will attend if you invite them. That is why I am providing you a simple but powerful tool to use. If you visit http://reachafriend.com/fcbcjax you will find an "E-Card." You can use the electronic card to send an e-mail invitation to your friends. It is simple, quick and effective. Please be assured that your friend's name and e-mail address will not be captured by the church for our use. We will not send them spam or place them in our data-base. Try it out today! Let's invite hundreds of people to experience the victory that Christ gives!

Preparing For Easter Church Guests

Here is a great article I read this morning about how churches can prepare to welcome all the guests who will attend on Easter.

Fresh Ideas, Preparing for Easter Church Guests
Written by Diana Davis
INDIANAPOLIS (BaptistPress) Feb 2, 2010

You've inundated your town with prayer and printed invitations to worship at your church on Easter. The nationwide GPS (God's Plan for Sharing) media blitz has reinforced those efforts. You have a sudden, terrifying thought ... "What if they all show up?!"
My husband often says, "You get what you get ready for." Need fresh ideas for getting ready?

We Had Approximately 923 people on Campus Yesterday!

Wow! We had a wonderful resurrection celebration at church. We had 739 people in the adult worship services and another 184 or so preschoolers and children in their worship services! These numbers do not include many of our Life Group leaders or Safety Team members. Best of all, the Gospel was proclaimed in many ways! This is what it is all about. I am following up on those who made decisions in the services or who want to know more about committing their life to Christ. Let me encourage you to pray that the seed of God's Word that was planted in the hearts of many people yesterday will bear fruit to God's glory. I also want to ask you to lead your Life Group to reach out to the many new people the Lord is sending our way. I spoke to one young lady who visited our church for the first time yesterday. She is married to a man in the Navy. He is out of town on duty and she is all alone here in Jacksonville. She has only been in town one week! Do you know why she came to FCBC yesterday? Because Jeremy Crespo led his group to reach out to her with an invitation to join them. Who is waiting on you to reach out to them and show them the love of Christ?

I Hope To See You Sunday

I hope you will join me this Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord. I will be preaching a message titled, "The Risen Lord Gives Us A Reason To Live," from John 20:19-23. Like the disciples, we may be fearful of the circumstances of life, the potential dangers we face, or just the unknown eventualities of life. But our risen Lord can bring peace, power, and purpose into our lives as we turn from our fears and place our faith in Him.

John 20:19-23(ESV)
¹⁹ On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you."
²⁰ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
²¹ Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you."
²² And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
²³ If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld."