Calvary Baptist Church of Holden
  • Home
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  • Radio
    • 2020 Sermons >
      • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Radio)
      • What Do We?
      • Behold How He Loved
      • When God Seems Two Days Late and an Answered Prayer Short
      • Struggling to the Truth
      • How to Live a Flourishing Christian Life
      • On Deaf Ears
      • Accept the Present But be Open to the Future
      • Why We Need Light
      • Others' Sin Sparks Reflection Within
      • Convincing the Almost Saved
      • The Best for Others
      • Crossing the Line
      • Spiritual Wisdom Lasts Forever
      • Let Jesus onto Your Boat
      • Four Principles of Missions
      • Satisfaction for the Soul
      • Mother's Day 2020
      • Reverence for Jesus Christ
      • The Authority of Jesus Christ
      • The Offer of Eternal Hope
      • Fiddling While Hell Burns
      • Reasons for Believing in Time of War (radio)
      • Worship Continues in Time of Crisis
      • The Most Pressing Need in the World
      • Believe or Die
      • Capturing the World's Attention
      • The Unpredictable in Life
      • From Spectator to Believer
      • Being A Saint Who Serves
      • Real Life on the Mission Field Congo Part 2
      • Real Life on the Mission Field Congo Part 1
      • Three Ways People Follow Christ
      • Letters From God
      • Following God
      • Lasting Changes
    • 2019 Sermons >
      • Why We Celebrate Christmas
      • The Meaning of King in our Christmas Carols
      • Time is Son-ey
      • The Thought Life of a Faithful Believer
      • How to Keep Your Church Going Strong
      • The Day of the Lord
      • The Rapture
      • The Temperament of a Church
      • What is Man?
      • Living for Christ
      • The Powerful Word of God
      • Adopt-a-Sinner
      • Practical Tips for Winning Souls to Christ
      • Key Ingredients for the Successful Presentation of the Gospel
      • The Working Mechanisms of a Healthy Church
      • By Faith We Can See
      • Meaning in the Monotony of Life
      • How Can a Believer Be a Good Example?
      • What Will Wake People Up To The Gospel?
      • But Now Bring What You Need
      • Disappointment
      • Occupy Til I Come
      • Enduring Rejection to Win Souls
      • Beware of Dainties
      • Proactive & Reactive Faithfulness
      • The Three Forms of Church Govt
      • True Faith
      • What is Saving Faith?
      • What Mom Wants Most
      • Repent!
      • Hope and Peace for Your Soul
      • Rejection of the King
      • Daily Life During the Millennial Kingdom
      • Government During the Millennial Kingdom
      • The Literal, Future Kingdom of God
      • When To Leave A Church
      • Punishment and Rewards
      • Wisdom for Realities
      • The Futility of Life without God
      • Sometimes Life Costs Too Much
      • Godliness
      • Illusions of Wealth
      • Thanking God
  • Past Livestreams
    • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Part II (YouTube)
    • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (YouTube)
    • The Rapture of the Church (YouTube)
    • Your Final Living Place
    • Shoot for Eternity (YouTube)
    • What Do We? (YouTube)
    • Behold How He Loved (YouTube)
    • When God Seems Two Days Late and an Answered Prayer Short YouTube
    • Struggling to the Truth YouTube
    • A Flourishing Christian Life YouTube
    • On Deaf Ears Video
    • Accept the Present (YouTube)
    • Why We Need Light Youtube
    • Others' Sin Sparks Reflection Within (YouTube)
    • Convincing the Almost Saved YouTube
    • The Best for Others YouTube
    • Crossing the Line YouTube
    • Spiritual Wisdom Lasts Forever YouTube
    • Let Jesus Onto Your Boat YouTube
    • The Four Principles of Missions
    • How Godly Moms Love their Children
    • Only the Hope God Provides Can Satisfy the Soul (YouTube)
    • Reverence for Jesus Christ (YouTube)
    • The Offer of Eternal Hope (YouTube)
    • The Authority of Jesus Christ YouTube
    • Fiddling While Hell Burns - YouTube
    • Reasons for Believing in Time of War
    • Worship Continues in Time of Crisis
  • COVID-19 Sermons
  • How to Know God
  • Church Bulletin
  • Missions
  • Where We Meet
  • Contact
    • Mailing List
  • TV
    • 1-12 Creation - Cain & Abel
    • 13-24 Flood-Ten Commandments
  • Pastor's Study
    • Older Sermons >
      • 2018 Sermons >
        • When Life Costs Too Much
        • Meaning in the Monotony
        • What Makes a Satisfying Life?
        • Disappointment
        • Persecution
        • By Faith We Can See
        • Worship
        • Spiritual Gifts
        • Responding to Suffering
        • Orienting the Family Around the Local Church
        • In the world but not of it.
        • Behaving Like a Genuine Believer
        • Our Minds Need Renovation
        • Let's Get Rid of the Old Man
        • Turning Worry into Rest
        • The Battle For Your Mind
        • Eternal Security
        • The Necessary Name
        • How to Reach This Generation
        • Repent
        • Understanding Today’s Reprobate Minds
        • Characteristics of Mature Believers
        • Characteristics of a Godly Mother
        • Living With Wisdom
        • Hope-filled Lives Matter
        • Living with Conviction
        • Trapped?
        • God is in Control
        • The Devoted and Emptied Believer
        • Law and Order
        • Power
      • 2017 Sermons >
        • Worship; More than a Word
        • Slump
        • Where's Your Mar's Hill?
        • Trusting God Entirely
        • Thankful Where Caught
        • Evidence of the Holy Spirit Leading
        • Temperament
        • Deeper Questions
        • Preparing For Our Departure
        • Helping New Converts
        • Refusing Honor
        • Longing for Truth
        • Yielding to Holy Spirit
        • Desiring God
        • Sympathy
    • Blog
    • Posts >
      • Final Words
      • Bible Foundations 22
      • Sunday, 11/4/18
      • Newsletter
      • What does Fundamentalist mean?
      • Apostle Paul was a Fundamentalist
      • The Difference between Evangelicals and Fundamentalists
      • Bible Foundations 21
      • Bible Foundations 20
      • Why I Preach 45-Minute Sermons
      • Simple Christianity
      • A Note From the Pastor
      • Lesson 19
      • Bible Foundations 18
      • From Whom Are You Learning?
      • Bible Foundations 17
      • Lesson 16
      • The Thanksgiving Proclamation
      • Bible Foundations 15
      • Lesson 14
      • Lesson 13
      • Video: Holdenites
      • Holdenites Can't be Good Enough
      • Lesson 11
      • Lessons 1-12
      • Trials101
      • Why You Might Like (or Not Like) our Church
      • But I Have Other Things to Do
      • Report of First Public Service
      • Our First Public Service!
      • The Difference Between Reading the Word and Meditating on the Word
      • New Beginnings for Baptist church in Holden
      • Newsletter Signup
  • What is Fundamentalism?
Picture

From Whom are You Learning?

As a child, I loved to hang out with adults just listening to their fascinating conversations. Sometimes I’d be in their presence and other times clandestinely lurking around the corner in the hallway. I remember a man visiting our house with a hook for a hand. He owned a fish store in Rhode Island and my mom and her boyfriend became friends with him. While sitting on the porch on that beautiful July day, my mom’s boyfriend told his guest that he had just turned 40. But I knew better. Obviously, he had forgotten how old he was, so I thought I’d clear up any misunderstanding and blurted out, “no you’re not! You’re 50!”  He casually walked over to me and said, in no uncertain terms, to keep my mouth shut.

FATHER-FIGURE
He was my father-figure at the time. And he taught me some important life lessons, like, “you should never hit a girl, including your sister, righty-tighty, lefty-loosey, and everything I ever wanted to know about cutting down trees, stacking wood, and making brush piles.  He taught me what it means to be a hard worker. But his alcoholism, divorce, and disbarment from practicing law brought him down a dark path. He ended up leaving my mother and finding greener pastures, I guess.  But I learned a lot from that man.  I had to learn from someone. Michael Lawson once wrote, “We are meant to be learners, for it is written into our createdness. We learn from the example of others. But the real question is, from whom are you learning.”

INTEGRITY
The Apostle Paul was a great teacher.  He taught in synagogues, in the marketplace, among the self-righteous and the humble. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he penned or dictated 13 of the 27 books in the New Testament. As he approached the later years of his ministry, he reflected upon his ministry to the Ephesians saying, “Ye knew, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons (Acts 20:19).” From the very first day the Ephesians met Paul, he lived a life of consistent integrity.

FROM THE FIRST DAY
First impressions carry a lot of weight in our minds. Whenever I walk into Market Basket in Leominster, I know immediately if a certain bagger is on duty.  He’s a broad-shouldered, jovial black guy with a booming voice and a superb sense of humor. He’s always joking with the customers.  Once, with his baldness, he rubbed the top of his head, smiled, and told the white bald customer in line, “hey, we could be brothers.”  My first impression was that this guy is a riot.  I later learned that he’s also a Marine veteran.  I was impressed.

CLEAN UNDERWEAR
When we think of first impressions, we often think about what we wear.  I can hear my mother now saying, “always wear clean underwear in case you have to go to the hospital.”  There is probably some truth to that.  Perhaps that’s why I don’t like popping into Big Y in Holden wearing the same clothes I wore to clean out the chicken coop.  As a pastor, I should look more presentable.

AT ALL SEASONS
But Paul wasn’t talking about his garments.  He was telling the pastors and deacons at Ephesus that his behavior was the same “at all seasons.” When things were going smoothly, when there was friction, when he couldn’t find his tent-making needle, and when the thorn in his flesh was troubling him. He was a person of integrity.

We are a fickle people. We’re often susceptible to our feelings, emotions, fears, and worries. But while we may experience those emotions from time to time, we know, deep down, that no matter what trials may cross our paths, our reverence toward God cannot be snuffed out.

ACCOUNTABLILITY
While it’s helpful to have someone like Paul, a regenerated father, mother, or grandparent to look to as an example of what it means to be a Christian with integrity, God holds us accountable for our own actions.  Yes, He knows some of us have come out of depraved situations. And He knows all his children fall short of perfect Christlikeness. Before he was saved, even Paul himself was a persecutor of Christians. But after his life-changing encounter with Christ on the road to Damascas, he became a man of integrity. His life was lived with a good testimony “in all seasons.”

WATCHING YOU
Perhaps there are young eyes watching us, our words, our actions.  “Be careful how you live,” writes William J. Toms. “You may be the only Bible some person ever reads.”  The only way to live a life of integrity is to recognize we’re utter failures before God and that He has given us undeserved mercy.  He is everything and we are nothing.  To be a believer with integrity means to have absolute confidence in God and His Word.  Learn from, live, and teach God’s Word.
"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • Purpose
    • Beliefs
    • Pastor
  • Radio
    • 2020 Sermons >
      • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (Radio)
      • What Do We?
      • Behold How He Loved
      • When God Seems Two Days Late and an Answered Prayer Short
      • Struggling to the Truth
      • How to Live a Flourishing Christian Life
      • On Deaf Ears
      • Accept the Present But be Open to the Future
      • Why We Need Light
      • Others' Sin Sparks Reflection Within
      • Convincing the Almost Saved
      • The Best for Others
      • Crossing the Line
      • Spiritual Wisdom Lasts Forever
      • Let Jesus onto Your Boat
      • Four Principles of Missions
      • Satisfaction for the Soul
      • Mother's Day 2020
      • Reverence for Jesus Christ
      • The Authority of Jesus Christ
      • The Offer of Eternal Hope
      • Fiddling While Hell Burns
      • Reasons for Believing in Time of War (radio)
      • Worship Continues in Time of Crisis
      • The Most Pressing Need in the World
      • Believe or Die
      • Capturing the World's Attention
      • The Unpredictable in Life
      • From Spectator to Believer
      • Being A Saint Who Serves
      • Real Life on the Mission Field Congo Part 2
      • Real Life on the Mission Field Congo Part 1
      • Three Ways People Follow Christ
      • Letters From God
      • Following God
      • Lasting Changes
    • 2019 Sermons >
      • Why We Celebrate Christmas
      • The Meaning of King in our Christmas Carols
      • Time is Son-ey
      • The Thought Life of a Faithful Believer
      • How to Keep Your Church Going Strong
      • The Day of the Lord
      • The Rapture
      • The Temperament of a Church
      • What is Man?
      • Living for Christ
      • The Powerful Word of God
      • Adopt-a-Sinner
      • Practical Tips for Winning Souls to Christ
      • Key Ingredients for the Successful Presentation of the Gospel
      • The Working Mechanisms of a Healthy Church
      • By Faith We Can See
      • Meaning in the Monotony of Life
      • How Can a Believer Be a Good Example?
      • What Will Wake People Up To The Gospel?
      • But Now Bring What You Need
      • Disappointment
      • Occupy Til I Come
      • Enduring Rejection to Win Souls
      • Beware of Dainties
      • Proactive & Reactive Faithfulness
      • The Three Forms of Church Govt
      • True Faith
      • What is Saving Faith?
      • What Mom Wants Most
      • Repent!
      • Hope and Peace for Your Soul
      • Rejection of the King
      • Daily Life During the Millennial Kingdom
      • Government During the Millennial Kingdom
      • The Literal, Future Kingdom of God
      • When To Leave A Church
      • Punishment and Rewards
      • Wisdom for Realities
      • The Futility of Life without God
      • Sometimes Life Costs Too Much
      • Godliness
      • Illusions of Wealth
      • Thanking God
  • Past Livestreams
    • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet, Part II (YouTube)
    • This World Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet (YouTube)
    • The Rapture of the Church (YouTube)
    • Your Final Living Place
    • Shoot for Eternity (YouTube)
    • What Do We? (YouTube)
    • Behold How He Loved (YouTube)
    • When God Seems Two Days Late and an Answered Prayer Short YouTube
    • Struggling to the Truth YouTube
    • A Flourishing Christian Life YouTube
    • On Deaf Ears Video
    • Accept the Present (YouTube)
    • Why We Need Light Youtube
    • Others' Sin Sparks Reflection Within (YouTube)
    • Convincing the Almost Saved YouTube
    • The Best for Others YouTube
    • Crossing the Line YouTube
    • Spiritual Wisdom Lasts Forever YouTube
    • Let Jesus Onto Your Boat YouTube
    • The Four Principles of Missions
    • How Godly Moms Love their Children
    • Only the Hope God Provides Can Satisfy the Soul (YouTube)
    • Reverence for Jesus Christ (YouTube)
    • The Offer of Eternal Hope (YouTube)
    • The Authority of Jesus Christ YouTube
    • Fiddling While Hell Burns - YouTube
    • Reasons for Believing in Time of War
    • Worship Continues in Time of Crisis
  • COVID-19 Sermons
  • How to Know God
  • Church Bulletin
  • Missions
  • Where We Meet
  • Contact
    • Mailing List
  • TV
    • 1-12 Creation - Cain & Abel
    • 13-24 Flood-Ten Commandments
  • Pastor's Study
    • Older Sermons >
      • 2018 Sermons >
        • When Life Costs Too Much
        • Meaning in the Monotony
        • What Makes a Satisfying Life?
        • Disappointment
        • Persecution
        • By Faith We Can See
        • Worship
        • Spiritual Gifts
        • Responding to Suffering
        • Orienting the Family Around the Local Church
        • In the world but not of it.
        • Behaving Like a Genuine Believer
        • Our Minds Need Renovation
        • Let's Get Rid of the Old Man
        • Turning Worry into Rest
        • The Battle For Your Mind
        • Eternal Security
        • The Necessary Name
        • How to Reach This Generation
        • Repent
        • Understanding Today’s Reprobate Minds
        • Characteristics of Mature Believers
        • Characteristics of a Godly Mother
        • Living With Wisdom
        • Hope-filled Lives Matter
        • Living with Conviction
        • Trapped?
        • God is in Control
        • The Devoted and Emptied Believer
        • Law and Order
        • Power
      • 2017 Sermons >
        • Worship; More than a Word
        • Slump
        • Where's Your Mar's Hill?
        • Trusting God Entirely
        • Thankful Where Caught
        • Evidence of the Holy Spirit Leading
        • Temperament
        • Deeper Questions
        • Preparing For Our Departure
        • Helping New Converts
        • Refusing Honor
        • Longing for Truth
        • Yielding to Holy Spirit
        • Desiring God
        • Sympathy
    • Blog
    • Posts >
      • Final Words
      • Bible Foundations 22
      • Sunday, 11/4/18
      • Newsletter
      • What does Fundamentalist mean?
      • Apostle Paul was a Fundamentalist
      • The Difference between Evangelicals and Fundamentalists
      • Bible Foundations 21
      • Bible Foundations 20
      • Why I Preach 45-Minute Sermons
      • Simple Christianity
      • A Note From the Pastor
      • Lesson 19
      • Bible Foundations 18
      • From Whom Are You Learning?
      • Bible Foundations 17
      • Lesson 16
      • The Thanksgiving Proclamation
      • Bible Foundations 15
      • Lesson 14
      • Lesson 13
      • Video: Holdenites
      • Holdenites Can't be Good Enough
      • Lesson 11
      • Lessons 1-12
      • Trials101
      • Why You Might Like (or Not Like) our Church
      • But I Have Other Things to Do
      • Report of First Public Service
      • Our First Public Service!
      • The Difference Between Reading the Word and Meditating on the Word
      • New Beginnings for Baptist church in Holden
      • Newsletter Signup
  • What is Fundamentalism?