By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:43-48

How can a person walk through life and learn how and why we love things, places, and people? When we think about what love is, we understand that love is not just something we say or a surface feeling. When we realize what the Bible tells us that is and how and why we must love, we can then grasp a better understanding!

When I was a young boy I “loved” playing out on that little farm I grew up on! I “loved” when we had homemade ice cream! I “loved” riding the tractor with my grandfather! The question now becomes why did I love those times? Why would I love to play, eat, and have fun? When we look at the Scripture for this week we see what Jesus said love is and how we should apply that love to our lives! [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:33-42

It is often said that how we react to life is one of the most important things in life! When a follower of Christ walks through a situation the world around us often watches us go through whatever is happening. When they are watching us they may or may not remember all the details but one thing is often remembered and that is our reaction. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:27-32

What does being distinct in our relationships look like? We are now living in a world where the relationships of believers have very little differences from the relationships of non-believers. There was once a time when our churches and our families taught us that we have a biblical mandate to live a different life from that of non-believers. We have let the world creep into all walks of our lives and now you have to look really hard to find the differences between each other. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:21-26

Conflict is a word that most of us do not like hearing, but for some they enjoy being in the middle of it. Conflict is something that keeps me up at night. I do not like having it anywhere around me! As a believer in Christ there are people all around us watching to see how we deal with conflict. There are times when we can avoid it at all cost, but there are also times where we must face it head on and see what we can do to help fix the issues. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:13-20

Influence, we all have it, but some of us need to use it in a better more godly way! As humans we are easily influenced. Why do you think that companies will spend millions of dollars next week on commercials during the Super Bowl? We want to look and act like others! We have to have the same clothes, cars, eat the same food, and it continues on for everything in life. But the question is, are we influencing the world for Christ? [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Matthew 5:1-12

When someone looks at you, what do they see. Do they see a person who has walked through life leaning on and trusting in God? Or do they see a person that has tried to walk through life all alone? A person looking at us should see God in us, and that is hard for some believers.

What do you think of when you think of character? Character is a trait that is taught to us and we either have a good character or a bad character. The believer should always possess a godly character. In Matthew 5, God shares with us what we should look like as a believer. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: Psalms 8:1-8

What does it mean to cherish something? The word cherish means that we hold something dear to us. When we think about cherishing something we often think about our children or grandchildren. Sometimes when we refer to childhood memories we think about those as a cherished memory, because we hold those thoughts so close to us.

Have you ever thought about how God cherished you? When I was a child I grew up in a broken home. Our home was not a place of safety and refuge. Growing up, we were often told that we meant little to nothing to everyone, and how life could be better without us. So when the pastor of the local church stopped by and invited us to church I never thought much about God wanting to love me or that God would cherish a relationship with me. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: I Corinthians: 12:12-16, 21-22; I Peter 4:9-11

Are you ready to go to work? That was a question that I was grateful to hear, from the head of personnel of a local market. I was a broke college student, living on my own, and I really needed a job! So, when the head of personnel asked me if I was ready to go to work the answer was yes. I asked him when could I start and he said today and I said yes sir! That afternoon I went to work and stayed at that job for a couple of years. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: I Corinthians 12:4-11

What are gifts? Are gifts the things we wrapped up in shining paper or placed in a decorative bag or maybe gifts are the things we place beautiful bows on! Maybe gifts are the things we shared with others just a few weeks ago! And to answer the question we would have to say yes! Yes, we could wrap them in shining paper, or place them in a decorative bag, and yes we can place bows on them, but that is not what the apostle Paul was talking about in I Corinthians 12. [Read more…]

By Michael Crandall
Senior Pastor, Hillcrest Baptist Church, Dyersburg

Focal Passage: John 1:1-5, 9-14

Have you ever thought about what life would be like if you never married the person of your dreams or if you never had your children or grandchildren? At times when we think about things such as this, we wonder what life would be like! Now let me ask you this, think about your life before you accepted Christ as your Savior. Life was much different then! Today if you have asked Christ to be your Savior, your future is much brighter. When we look at this week’s lesson we see why God sent His Son to be born of a virgin, wrapped in rags and laid in a manger. [Read more…]