First Presbyterian Church of Baton Rouge

A Generous Measure

Jesus calls us to replace judgment and condemnation with forgiveness, compassion, and generosity. Rather than simply changing our behavior, he invites us to experience genuine transformation of the heart. As we extend grace to others, even when it is difficult, we discover the overflowing blessings of God's immeasurable generosity.

Meet the New King

Jesus invites us into a kingdom radically different from the world’s, where power, success, comfort, and self-reliance give way to humility, dependence on God, and love for others—even our enemies. We enter not through goodness or achievement, but through grace, trusting Christ alone as the King who transforms hearts forever.

What He Saw

Jesus’ call of Levi reveals how he sees people differently than we often do. He sees beyond reputations, appearances and failures to recognize both our brokenness and our God-given dignity. His grace reaches those considered beyond hope, transforms lives and calls us to see others with compassion, humility and expectation.

And It Came to Pass

A Bigger Box for Jesus

Jesus challenges us to expand our understanding of who God’s grace is for. In Nazareth, the people reject Jesus when they realize his mission includes Gentiles and outsiders. The gospel humbles insiders and welcomes the needy, offering freedom, healing, and salvation. Jesus’ mission cannot be confined by our expectations, preferences, or limitations.

The Son Revealed

Jesus’ baptism reveals him as God’s beloved Son, while his temptation demonstrates his faithful obedience where Adam, Israel, and David failed. Through the Spirit, Scripture, prayer, and humble submission, believers can resist temptation and endure trials. Above all, Christ’s obedience and sacrifice bring forgiveness, righteousness, adoption, and reconciliation with God. 

What Do You Want to See?

Luke shows that the kingdom of God is ushered in by true brokenness. We need to be open to God, seek genuine change, and expect the Spirit to move.

Meet the Beloved Physician

Luke introduces us to Jesus through the eyes of a careful historian, compassionate pastor, and adventure guide. His account invites us to discover a Jesus who welcomes outsiders, understands our struggles, heals and saves, and brings certainty in the midst of doubt. With the Divine Physician, the adventure is real.

Packing List for the Promised Land

Joshua did not succeed because he obeyed God’s instruction; he succeeded because God was with him to enable him to obey his instruction. He was given command of the people by the Lord’s commissioning, and so they moved forward – together.

Look and Live

Repentance and faith are central in the story of Numbers 21. When the Israelites recognize their sin and repent, God provides a means of healing: looking in faith at the bronze serpent. This act foreshadows Christ, showing that true restoration comes through honest repentance and trusting in God's gracious provision.

Giants in the Land

Giants are real, but God’s promises remain. Faith stays rooted, resolute, and compassionate. Though challenges and defeat come, faithfulness is better than cowardly rebellion because God fights with his people.

When God Pours Out

Our strong cravings often lead us to complain about our circumstances instead of trusting God’s provision. God empowered his people to speak truth, redirect hearts, and remind one another that our deepest need is found in his sovereign care. We learn to listen to his Spirit and grow in gratitude for the daily provisions he provides and encourage one another in truth and love.

When God Moves In

God still desires to dwell with his people. God wants our entire schedule to revolve around him. Our work, our family, our finances, our relationships. We should work toward everything centering around his presence.

False and True Glory

False worship reaches for empty glory, while true worship seeks God’s presence, beauty, truth, goodness, grace, and holiness. God’s glory changes our lives, shapes us as his distinct people, gives meaning, hope, joy, and draws the pain out of our souls.

A Father's Gift

The Law is not and cannot be a checklist to make sure we’re in good with God. It never was! But now, in Christ as those set free, God’s gracious gift to us is a Law that will redirect us, point us the way we should go. And, by the Spirit’s power as he renews us in the image of the Son, he enables us more and more to live according to how God has made us and called us.

Soaring on Wings

Israel arrives at Mount Sinai and hears God declare who they are: His treasured possession, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Though they remain in the wilderness, waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises, their identity is secure because it is rooted in God’s covenant love rather than their circumstances. These promises ultimately find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, whose perfect obedience secures for believers the assurance that they belong to God. 

Is the LORD among Us or Not?

In response to the question “Is the Lord among us or not?” simply look to Jesus Christ, Emmanuel , who is God With Us. The Lord may not give us every answer to our questions and our tears this side of heaven. Rather, He gives us Himself. The day is coming, we are told, when every tear will be wiped away, when death and sorrow will be no more. Those griefs and unanswered questions will turn into reunions and unexpected answers that will allow us an even greater measure of joy than we ever could have known otherwise. Oh yes. The Lord is among us.

Wilderness Training

When we are in the wilderness, we need to think more deeply on who we actually are, and who the Lord is. Slogans from the world such as “you are enough” or “live your truth” won’t stand up under the hot sun of suffering. But gathering around the oasis of God’s word and letting it sink into our hearts with others will provide help and hope even in the most difficult of times.

Go Forward!

Our culture treats the parting of the Red Sea primarily as figurative, thus denying the power of the historical event. The church is prone to believe God’s mighty acts happened historically but forget that they have any power for us today. Exodus 14 shows us that we must go forward seeing what is real, and believing in God’s glorious name.

The LORD's Passover

The Lord’s Passover reveals both the justice and mercy of God. As the final plague falls upon Egypt, God delivers his people through the blood of a spotless lamb, calling them to faithful trust and corporate obedience. The Passover becomes a sign of redemption, belonging, and hope passed from generation to generation. Yet this lamb points beyond Egypt to Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. Through his sacrifice, believers are spared judgment and brought into communion with God and one another. This message calls the church to worship, humility, gratitude, and steadfast faith in God’s redeeming grace.

The Purpose of the Plagues

The plagues of Egypt reveal God’s sovereignty over Pharaoh, idols, pride, and rebellion. Through hard heads, hard hearts, and darkness felt, God exposes false worship, calls people to repentance, and demonstrates redemption. The darkness surrounding Jesus Christ shows the ultimate purpose: salvation, light, hope, joy, obedience, and deliverance through his glorious saving work.

Encounter with the Real God

Moses' encounter with God at the burning bush as a foundational conversion experience and a model for how believers meet God in times of uncertainty and transition. God often calls us in moments of discouragement and obscurity, requiring us to "turn aside" from our distractions to notice his presence. The burning bush represents God's holy, purifying nature—dangerous yet life-giving—and reveals that true transformation comes when we slow down enough to encounter the real God rather than a deity of our own making. Through Moses' story, we learn that God equips the unlikely and ordinary for extraordinary missions, and that Jesus Christ serves as the mysterious mediator who allows us to stand in God's holy presence without being consumed. We are challenged to examine our own "wilderness" experiences and trust God's timing, even when it seems inexplicably slow.

Peace Is Personal

True peace is found not in circumstances but in Jesus Christ, who reconciles humanity to God and to one another. Through his sacrifice, divisions rooted in sin, prejudice, and history are broken down, forming one unified body of believers. Christians are called to live out this peace by pursuing humility, community, and reconciliation, reflecting Christ’s work by overcoming hostility and embracing others in love and grace together.

Redemption

Through the cross, Jesus redeems his people like a bride rescued from death. The story of Ruth and Boaz reflects this covenant love, pointing to Christ the Redeemer who gives himself for his church. He rescues us from sin and death, making us his beloved bride and calling us to live in love and hope.

Just and the Justifier

We look through the window of the cross to see how sinners gain a new legal standing before a righteous God. We stood beneath a debt we could never afford, our failures and transgressions recorded against us. But in Christ, God canceled the record of debt . . . nailing it to the cross. Jesus paid the legal price for crimes he did not commit, and with his final word—tetelestai, finished—our debt was discharged. In the great exchange, my record of sinfulness goes to Jesus, and his record of faithfulness goes to me. Thus, God becomes both just and the justifier of sinners, offering grace, mercy, and a cleared record to all who lean upon Christ. 

Atonement!

Sacrifice and offering, my blood for your life, is at the heart of the story of Scripture. We see the mystery resolved in Jesus. The Triune God asked much of his people in the sacrifices. But the Father, Son, and Spirit gave more in the mission of the Son to die and rise in order to save us.

Substitute!

Jesus’ cross cannot be understood apart from his incarnation, life, resurrection, and ascension, and his identity as fully God and fully man. In humanity’s weakness, sin, and hostility, Christ died as substitute to reconcile us. His sacrificial love frees believers from self-centered living and calls them into transformed, Christ-centered, life.

The Triumph of Joy: Easter Sunday

"He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.""O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?"

They Did Not Break His Legs: Holy Saturday

" When they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs."

Why We Call the Worst Day "Good": Good Friday

"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."No horror surpasses what transpired on a hill outside Jerusalem almost two millennia ago. And yet we call it "Good" Friday.

His Hour Had Come: Maundy Thursday

"The hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners."The hour has come. All history hinges on this hour. And it is utterly terrifying. Jesus must decide: will he turn to protect his own skin and soul, or will he stay the course and embrace his Father's perfect and painful will?

Enter the Traitor: Spy Wednesday

"Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"With the previous three days awash in drama—Sunday's triumphal entry, Monday's temple cleansing, and Tuesday's tense exchanges, with the silencing word from Psalm 110—now Wednesday comes like the calm before the storm. This is the day Judas made a deal with the religious officials to reveal to them Jesus’ whereabouts on the next day. Judas became a betraying spy within the inner circle of Christ’s disciples. 

He Sealed His Fate with a Song: Holy Tuesday

"The LORD says to my Lord: 'Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."With each passing hour, Jesus drew nearer to thelion's jays. In just three days, he would be shamed and humiliated, tortured and executed. How did he keep going? On the inside he was singing.

Jesus' Most Controversial Claim: Holy Monday

" I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

The Strange and Wonderful Ride: Palm Sunday

"Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"Branches are cut from trees, hands are raised in praise, and the most important figure enters the great city for his final week.

The Scars Will Never Fade: The Wounds Christ Took to Heaven

"Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."Jesus' body in which he died was not only restored to life but changed.

He Sat Down: The Great Coronation in Heaven

"After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."Imagine the moment when Jesus first sat down on heaven's throne.

His Reign Has Begun: Christ As Sovereign and Judge

"Behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom."

He Is Exalted: The Ascended and Seated Christ

"As they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."Think how it would have been if the resurrected Jesus stayed on earth. There is no way a billion people could relate to him. Even a million believers, we’d be waiting in line our whole lives to speak to him. But in ascending, leaving the earth but staying human, he now can relate to all of us all at once. How? By the gift of the Holy Spirit.

He Cannot Be Stopped

"God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it."The resurrection of Christ declares even more for those of us who are joined to him by faith. Not only is he unstoppable – so are we. What is the power that is at work in us, even now – we who have faith in him?

He Is Risen Indeed

O death, where is your victory?O death, where is your sting?The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

His Heart Beats

"You were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."Jesus had a physical heart like we all do. “On average 5,000 times each hour” and “Each beat upheld by the hand of his Father, like each beat of your heart.” But this particular heart started beating again! Do you think it was instantly, or did the Father slowly wake him up?  

Get to the Cross and Never Leave

"You are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption."All springs from the Cross?

God's Defining Moment: How Christ Secured Our Deepest Joy

"God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ."What makes Jesus’ cross, his spilled blood, his willing sacrifice, so compelling? What does his work achieve for us? 

A Much More Excellent Covenant: Five Contrasts with the Old

"Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises."A covenant is a solemn agreement between two parties more binding than a contract. A contract is a 50-50 proposition. If you don’t do your part, I’m no longer obligated to do my part. A covenant typically signifies “I’m committing to you this particular action or truth regardless of what you do, or death is the outcome.”

He Took the Wrath for Us: The Glory of Propitiation

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us."Propitiation means to appease wrath. It’s not a word we use every day. Not a concept we like, but a whole industry is built on propitiation! What do we bring to avert wrath?

Barabbas and Me: A Substitute for the Guilty

"He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, for whom they asked, but he delivered Jesus over to their will."How is Barabbas a type for all of us, all of us who are insurrectionists against God? How does substitution work in the story of Barabbas and our story? 

What Makes Blood Precious?

"He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption."Does Jesus’ blood purchase our redemption now AND those sins that the animals were sacrificed for? What does God do with those sins that were covered with “lesser” blood than Jesus? Blood=Life

What Makes a Cross Wonderful?

"We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and wisdom of God."Why can’t you separate the horror of the cross from the wonder of the sacrifice? We can’t fully grasp the wonder without realizing its horror. 

He Discipled: Blessing the Masses, Investing in a Few

"He appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him."How does Jesus’ method emphasize the power of a few? What hope does that give us as disciple makers?