In this introduction to our new sermon series from 1st and 2nd Thessalonians we look at the context of the Apostle Paul's visit to Thessaloniki from Acts 17 and how that relates to the letter. As one of the oldest books in the New Testament, an...

In this message, Pastor Rusty identifies and breaks down the three greatest dangers facing the church in the coming year and to follow. Jude 3 tells us that one of our responsibilities as Christians is to "contend for the faith" yet so many in ...

This is the short Pastoral Prayer time before the message "Three Dangers Facing the Church in 2026" where Pastor Rusty sets the stage for the message but also offers a warning about judgement that could befall the American Church if we do not g...

       In this message we examine what its means to be part of a "Baptist" church. What we believe and why and what makes us distinctive from other denominations and groups. We look at church history from the early church in...

In this message we examine the state of families and marriages in American today and discuss the importance of having a marriage based on a Biblical worldview. We look at the foundation of a Biblical Marriage and talk about why marriages dissol...

In this message we examine the purpose statement for First Baptist Church of Blowing Rock. We discuss what people should be looking for in a church family and how we should fit into that search. We describe and discuss what our goal is as a loc...

We wrap up our series on living in the second mile by looking at the second metaphor that Jesus uses to describe his follower - Light. What did he mean by calling us light and how does that impact not just our own personal lives but the influen...

In Matthew 5:13, Jesus calls his followers "Salt". Of all the metaphors you could think of to describe Christians, salt does not sound like much of a compliment. What did he mean by describing Christians as salt and how does that relate to the ...

While most Christians strive to actively pursue all of the characteristics we have discussed for living in the second mile from Jesus's teachings on the Beatitudes, there is one that we actively avoid - persecution for being a follower of Jesus...

The Bible talks a lot about purity and being pure at heart but what does that mean? Is that something that God does for us or do we play a role in it - or both? Join us for this message on another characteristic that is evident in the lives of ...

When do we most resemble Jesus? When do our actions and behaviors cause others to see Jesus in us the most? While Jesus tells us that the world will know we are His disciples "by our love", in Matthew 5, he identifies another characteristic tha...

In today's culture we once again find the idea of being merciful or offering mercy to be politicized and considered a weakness - the same was true in the 1st Century during the life of Jesus Christ. That is one of the reasons that the "Good Sam...

Here we examine what it really means to "Hunger and Thirsty for Righteousness" by breaking down what each word means and what that means for our Christian walk. Are we really hungry for the presence of God or are we hungry for what God can do f...

When you think of the most powerful people on earth, meekness is not one of the character attributes we would usually use to describe them. Yet when Jesus is listing character traits that a Christ Follower will need to live and operate in the s...

At the start of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus follows up his call for those who want to follow him to be "poor in spirit" to promise for those who mourn that they will be comforted. It is easy to read this as meaning "mourn" in a sense of our ...

When we realize how difficult it is for us to follow Jesus by living in the second mile, we come to understand it is only through the help and power of the Holy Spirit that we might accomplish it. It is easy to live in the first mile in our own...

As we start this new sermon series, we will be exploring what Jesus meant in Matthew 5:41 when he encourages his followers to "go the second mile" and what that might look lived out in our everyday lives. We explore the context and history rela...

We close out our sermon series on those who had encounters with Jesus with probably the most relatable character in our entire series. He is the only one who was already a Christian and had probably known Jesus and followed him in his early min...

In this encounter with Jesus, we look outside of the Gospels for the first time to the book of Acts as we meet Saul the Pharisee. Introduced to us at the murder/stoning of Stephen, one of the first deacons in the new Jerusalem church, by the Ph...

In this encounter with Jesus, we look at the dinner party thrown by Simon the Pharisee that was crashed by an unnamed "sinful woman" with an alabaster jar full of perfume. While it is actually two encounters, both reveal something about worship...

In this message Pastor Rusty starts by offering some thoughts and reflections on the murder of Charlie Kirk and is aftereffects. He also ties in this assassination and several other troubling current events to the Encounter that Jesus had with ...

Any time a Christians mentions the dangers and consequences of living a sinful lifestyle, it doesn't take long to hear someone proclaim Matthew 7:1, "Judge not least you be judged" or John 8:7 "You without sin cast the first stone." They try to...

When discussing his desire to broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, President Trump stated that he hoped that by securing a lasting peace, he could gain a spot in Heaven.  While it is easy to point out how this view does not line up wit...

In this message we examine the importance of not just "feeling thankful" but rather the call on our lives to "be thankful" and how that looks in our everyday lives. We unpack how expressing our gratitude to both God and others can transform our...

In this follow up to last week's message we examine the aftershocks of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan Woman at the well in John 4. We look at the disciple's response to the encounter and how that relates to the modern American church. We a...