Tag Archives: Church

Growing Together



Unity within the body of Christ is not to say there are not different roles and ways to serve in the same body. Christ the Head has designed His body to have a diversity of people within the body so that every one can be equipped and participate in the work that needs to be done. That is a part of growing to maturity in Christ – serving in love through His Spirit.

Ephesians 4:1-16

Taught Sunday morning, October 27, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Access in Christ



Paul elaborates on the mystery revealed in Christ that the LORD God and His Messiah were not just a local god and hero, but to bring salvation to the ends of the earth for all nations to be given confident access to the God of the universe. Let’s use that access with boldness in prayer.

Ephesians 3:1-13

Taught Sunday morning, October 6, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


He is our Peace



In Christ, we are redeemed from the penalty for our sin. And having been reconciled in Christ to God also means that the barriers between people groups are broken down in the body of Christ. We are a new creation. Having made peace between us and God, He has made peace possible among the individuals within the body of Christ. And to top it off, through His Holy Spirit He gives us peace within through prayer in Christ.

Ephesians 2:11-22

Taught Sunday morning, September 22, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Fellowship with Lord



Acts 2:41-42 tells us what the followers of Christ did steadfastly – learning the teachings of the apostles, fellowship together, Communion, and prayer. Acts 20:6-13 gives us a vignette of a church in a town called Troas (or Troy) doing those four things on the first day of the week with a special guest, the traveling teacher, Paul the Apostle. We can learn much from this gathering as told by the eyewitness who occasionally traveled with Paul for this journey.

Acts 2:41-42 and Acts 20:6-14

Taught Sunday morning, February 18, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


The Lord’s Body



The Lord’s Supper consists of bread and the cup – physical symbols of a spiritual reality. The body and the blood of Jesus broken and shed on the cross for sinners in order that they might be forgiven and made clean from guilt and shame. And to incorporate them into the church which is the body of Jesus Christ on earth today. Examine oneself to determine where you stand in this?

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Taught Sunday morning, February 11, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


The Lord’s Supper



Jesus is the faithful Jew who kept the law’s commands including observing the Passover celebration each spring. But during His last Passover, He took the familiar elements and initiated a new ceremony for His kingdom that we know as the Lord’s Supper. This week and next, we look at the Lord’s Supper to see what Jesus is teaching through the physical symbols that point to a spiritual reality.

Luke 22:7-23

Taught Sunday morning, February 4, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Baptism Proclaims



John started baptizing people who confessed their sinful condition and desired to be made right with God (repentance). The dip in the water symbolized the washing of their sins and trust in the “One to come” who was greater than John. This greater One would baptize people in the Holy Spirit, but the physical symbol Jesus taught His apostles was to baptize people in water who had by faith been baptized into the Holy Spirit. Plus their dip under the water also symbolized their faith in the One who had died, been buried, and rose again to new life.

Matthew 3

Taught Sunday morning, January 14, 2024 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Unity in Love



Jesus prays that His disciples and their disciples would be unified by His Spirit in them and that unity would create a visible unity among His people through humility, love for one another (John 13:34-35), and serving one another through the Spirit. And Paul echoes that teaching in 1 Corinthians 12:12-14, Galatians 3:28, Ephesians 4:1-6ff, and Philippians 2:1-4. Others will see that kind of loving unity and they will know that God has been at work. And we are practicing for eternity, Jesus prays that we will be with Him forever in glory.

John 17:20-26

Taught Sunday morning, October 15, 2023 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Communion in Lord’s Supper



Paul had to correct the Corinthian believers where they were failing to discern the significance of the what he called the Lord’s Supper. It was to be a time of communion with Christ as well as with one another in unity. And we learn much about this ordinance for our day as we read this letter over their shoulders.

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Taught Sunday morning, August 13, 2023 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!


Baptism Proclaims



Paul uses baptism to illustrate why we should be denying temptations to sin and living more like Christ. Which prompts us to examine baptism as Paul did in order to better understand the spiritual significance of this ordinance given by Christ the Lord.

Romans 6:1-5

Taught Sunday morning, April 2, 2023 by Brad D Harris

We hope that this online service has blessed you.  It is funded by the generous participants of Prairie Oaks Baptist Church.  If you would like to contribute to Prairie Oaks and their audio ministry, we have a donation page so that you can securely give online to help this ministry.  Thank you for listening and prayerfully supporting us.  I hope we continue to further you in your journey with Christ!