Wisconsin Avenue Baptist Church of Washington DC

What are you hungry for?

In this sermon, Min. Leslie Harris encourages us to take a spiritual health checkup. To consider for ourselves how we are living as dual citizens of both this world and the Kingdom of God, and to reflect on whether we are regularly standing on the Word of God and honoring God's Kingdom. Posing such questions as, how does your hunger and thirst for the things of God show up in your daily life? And, what are you doing to experience the power of the Word of God and to change the atmosphere around you? 

A Story of Reversals

As Pastor Jim explains, this story about the prophet Jonah causes us to carefully consider the judgement of God as well as the mercy of God. To think about the importance of God’s justice alongside the necessity of God’s mercy. To remain open to the mystery of God’s goodness while recognizing God's freedom to choose not act. And by doing so, we experience the mystery of God's compassion and are amazed by the breadth of God’s love and mercy, which extend beyond the bounds of what people expect or deserve. 

God's All-Consuming Love

In this message, Pastor Jim asks the question, what do you fear? He considers how we are living in a culture of fear, and we may have become a prisoner of our fears. A way of life that is incompatible with the freedom found in Christ. In fact, fear is one of the very things that Jesus came to destroy as part of his saving work of redemption and launching the new creation. As explained in 1 John 4, our fears can be overtaken by the new life available in Christ. Our former way of life can be completely swallowed up in the love of God. Because, as it turns out, God’s love is indeed the real source of life. Fear can no longer exist where God's love is fully present.

All Aboard: The Work of Ministry

In this sermon, Pastor Lynn preaches on Ephesians 4 and explains how the Holy Spirit has given each one of us who believe in Jesus certain gifts to serve others in ministry. Amazingly, these individual gifts fit together so beautifully, and together we really are the Body of Christ. We are Christ's flesh and blood on this earth doing God's work through the power and gifts that the Holy Spirit has given us. 

The Cost of Love

In this message on Matthew 20:1-15, Pastor Jim draws our attention to how Jesus uses a parable about the workers in the vineyard to explain what the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) is like. Yet again, Jesus tells his closest disciples that God is quite different from what they may have been taught to think about God. Views that they may have learned from their religious leaders and heard through "God stories" from family, friends and local community members. A parable which declares in a vivid way how God is completely good. How God’s love is constant and enduring. How our relationship with God is never based on our performance. How God’s actions reveal God’s love for you! 

Child-like Trust

You may ask yourself, “What does it mean to enter the Kingdom of God anyway?” As Pastor Jim explains, the Kingdom of God belongs to those who trust Jesus like children. Those who lay aside what the world and our culture say are important in regard to status, power and prestige. Laying aside big egos and power plays. Laying aside those who are thought to be “in” and those who are thought to be “out.” Choosing, instead, to be the sort of person who trusts God with everything and in all situations. Becoming the kind of person who can give up their desire for control of what is happening, when it is happening and whether or not it produces an outcome they want. To be more like Jesus by having child-like trust in God. 

The Prison of the Past

In this sermon, Pastor Lynn contrasts two Scripture passages. The first one is the story of Lot's wife when she leaves the city of Sodom with her family. After she is warned not to do so, Lot's wife looks back. She is not able to flee the city without turning back to her past. This passage is then put in contrast to 2 Corinthians 5:17 where Paul explains, "if anyone is in Christ that person is a new creation."  Only Jesus has the power to heal us and release us from our past. And there is nothing beyond the power of God's love and forgiveness which cannot be healed.  

College Student Reflections & Youth Mission Experiences

During this special youth and college student service, WABC's youth share about their summer mission experiences while our college students offer some personal reflections. Isaac Bergfalk begins by sharing his views about the interdependencies between humanity and the created world. Followed by Nakeshia Diop who describes what she has learned from traveling abroad and why it is important to have empathy for other people. Then, Mira and Sophie Bergfalk talk about their collective experiences at a "Youth Summit at the Sea" which took place in Virginia Beach with other American Baptist youth. And finally, Luke Paraboschi gives his reflections on a recent mission trip to the Philippines and what he learned from the experience. 

The God Who Sees

In this sermon, Min. Leslie Harris draws our attention to the story of Hagar in the desert. An Old Testament story about God hearing and seeing Hagar, a former slave and second wife of Abraham, who is alone crying in the desert and in desperate need of help. A story which we may all be able to relate to at some level. While it is also a reminder that we are never abandoned by God. Rather, God wants every person to know that God hears you, God sees you and God will always take care of you.  

The Vibrant Life Empowered By the Spirit

In his final sermon on missions, Pastor Jim explains that we have to learn how to walk with the Spirit, listen for the instructions of the Spirit, and trust what the Spirit tells us to do. Not just with the big things in life, but with the regular moments too. In all things, we are all to remain open to what the Spirit is doing in us and around us. This is the vibrant life empowered by the Spirit as it is recorded in the Bible. How is the Spirit moving you?