By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: 1 Timothy 2:1-8

Charles Spurgeon said, “No man can do me a truer kindness than to pray for me.” It is a wonderful privilege to intercede for others, standing in for them and crying out to heaven on their behalf. There are three things I’ve learned about praying for others.

First, it takes intention. I can’t leave it up to my own whims. I have to purpose to do it or I will never get it done. 

Each week I purpose time to pray for my church, my brother pastors across our state, and then my neighbors. I need all the help I can get with this. 

One of the best things I’ve found is a simple app called Bless Every Home.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: I Corinthians 13:1-13 

Love gives aim to our gifts and our service. Love gives not only purpose but substance to our lives. So, what does love look like? 

This is a word that has been poorly defined and abundantly misused in our world today. Love is something more than affection, it is deeper than pleasure, something altogether different from infatuation. 

The way Paul talks about love here describes something more than the type of love our world is perpetually pursuing in worship. 

Love is characterized as more than a feeling that fades but a commitment which changes our character. It is patient and kind. That takes more than positive feelings. That requires a commitment to such actions and attitude.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Luke 10:25-37 

An expert in the law, testing Jesus, began questioning Him about the law. This wasn’t the inquisitive questioning of a heartfelt seeker but an arrogant questioning seeking only to trap Jesus through cross examination. 

This lawyer sums up the law rightly with the Great Commandment. He seems to be missing the point, though. A consuming love for God produces a love of others without preconditions because of being so greatly loved by God. 

Knowing that he should love God and neighbor, he wants to know who qualifies as his neighbor. Who must he love and who can he hate? What I love about Jesus’ response is that while this scribe is asking what kind of person his neighbor is, Jesus responds by showing what kind of neighbor he himself should be. [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: 1 Corinthians 12:4-14

The church at Corinth was truly a problem church, wouldn’t you agree? Just reading I Corinthians you can’t help but feel the frustration of Paul, trying to help this immature, divisive, selfish and sinful church to unite in submission under Christ.

It’s no surprise they would ask Paul about spiritual gifts. It is likely some had begun to prioritize certain gifts over others and use them as a way to gain position or authority. They had created a virtual giftedness caste system. 

In fairness, I’ve seen the same thing in today’s churches. Are we not tempted to value giftedness over godliness, competence and charisma over character, personality over personal holiness, results over revival?  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Galatians 5:16-25

Amos 3:3 asks, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” As the people of God, we are to be walking in the Spirit and with the Spirit. But what does it mean to walk with the Spirit? 

First, just like Amos, we must be agreed. We must agree to be going the same direction as Him. In Experiencing God, Henry Blackaby teaches we must find out where God is at work and join Him there. 

We need to stay prayed up and surrendered to see the direction in which God is walking and eagerly walk with Him. Walking with the Spirit is not just about the final destination but the fellowship along the way. Walking with God gives the picture of fellowship with Him.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: 1 Corinthians 10:23-33

The question of the Christian’s freedom is something I’ve wrestled with since I first met Jesus. My first few years as a Christian I felt little freedom. I was bound tightly by legalistic ropes which kept my conscience in a constant shame. 

No matter what sins I avoided and what good I did, at the end of every day I couldn’t shake the feeling God was mad at me and I had to try even harder tomorrow. 

I was miserable and none of this brought a greater godliness to me or good to others.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Ephesians 5:8-21

Paul makes a really interesting contrast here to describe the wonder of the Spirit’s filling of the believer. 

Unlike the pagans, believers are not to be drunk with wine but filled with the Spirit. Whatever fills us controls us. I’ve met people filled with pride, filled with bitterness, filled with anger, filled by addictions, and even those blessed people overwhelmingly and obviously filled by the Spirit. Once more, whatever fills us controls us. 

Being controlled by drunkenness only leads to debauchery. This is wasteful, riotous living. I’ve met no one who would say drunkenness made their life better.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: Romans 8:9-17

At the moment of conversion, when we are born again, the Holy Spirit takes up residence inside us. He indwells the believer and gives them power to live for Jesus. This comes with many benefits to us. It is a constant reminder we are not left alone to stumble through the adventure of the Christian life. 

GotQuestions.org lists 10 incredible things this indwelling accomplishes or promises to us. The person of the Holy Spirit comes to a soul dead in sin and creates new life. He confirms to the believer they belong to the Lord as a fellow heir with Christ.

The Spirit installs us as members of Christ’s universal Church. He gives spiritual gifts, according to His will, for effective service to God and the edification of the church. He illuminates Scripture to help us understand and apply its truths. The Holy Spirit enriches and empowers our prayer lives, Himself also interceding for us in prayer.  [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: John 3:1-8, 14-17

John chapter 3, need I say more? This is an amazing encounter as Jesus breaks down the beauty of the gospel and our desperate need of it to Nicodemus. 

To this man who had the right bloodline, the right credentials, and the right training He says, “You must be born again.” Nicodemus could not continue on the same path he was on and get where he was trying to go. 

He was broken and beyond repair. He could not merely make a new start, he needed new life. This is true for each of us, as well. God is not only the God of second chances, He is the God of new life! Which is good, because we “must be born again.” [Read more…]

By Scott Brown
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Waverly

Focal Passage: John 15:26-27; 16:7-15

 Of all the benefits that Holy Spirit God brings into the life of believers, conviction is the one for which I am least often and most often thankful. I do not like feeling conviction, it’s not fun. 

That overwhelming sense that something I did or felt, something I did not do, or (most often in my case) something I did or did not say, was not right before God. I thank God for conviction, though, because it reminds me of God’s unchanging nature. He is uncompromising in His disdain for sin just as He is unchanging in His love for me. 

I thank God also for conviction because it is a great measure of my current spiritual health. Hear me out. When I am not walking with Jesus as I should and want to, I am significantly duller in feeling that conviction and acting upon it.  [Read more…]