By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: II Samuel 20:1-2, 14-21

On June 14, 2000, J.P. Morgan & Company, a bank worth $21 billion at the time, could have averted a one-day internet shutdown by simply paying a $35 bill. The venerable Wall Street firm found itself without a website or an e-mail connection to the outside world because it had failed to renew the registration of its domain name that served as its online address. Client after client was unable to visit the website or exchange e-mail messages with the firm’s bankers and traders.  [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 19:1-15

Emotional intelligence in leadership is critical. Daniel Goleman, in his book, Working With Emotional Intelligence, defined emotional intelligence as “the capacity for recognizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves, and for managing our emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships.” In The Emotional Intelligence of Jesus: Relational Smarts for Religious Leaders, Roy Oswald and Arland Jacobson described emotional intelligence as “how we manage our emotions so as to function effectively in relationships.” [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 15:10-16, 24-30

It was news to me. I had no idea that modern day refrigerators now come with a Sabbath mode. I didn’t even know we had such a mode available on our refrigerator until recently. According to my wife, on occasion, she accidently turns on the Sabbath mode on our fridge. [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: II Samuel 13:15-20, 31-39

Futurologist, Alvin Toffler, in his book, The Third Wave, suggests three waves in American culture and their impact on the family. The agricultural wave was the time when Americans lived on farms out in the country. The industrial wave was the time when American families moved from the country to the city. The information wave is the present time when American families are living in a digital age. Toffler concluded: “If we define the family in today’s third wave as a husband, a wife, and two or more children, and ask how many Americans still live in this type of family, the answer is an astonishing seven percent. Ninety-three percent do not fit the normative second wave model of the family.” Throughout the halls of history and regardless of the waves of time, the family has always been and will always be under attack. [Read more…]

JULY 8: ACCOUNTABLE

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 12:1-14

Practical accountability breeds personal responsibility. Personal responsibility bleeds without practical accountability.  [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 9:1-13

Following an exhilarating performance at New York’s Carnegie Hall, celebrated classical cellist Yo-Yo Ma went home, slept, and awoke the next day exhausted. He called for a cab to take him to a hotel on the other side of Manhattan and placed his cello, which was handcrafted in Vienna in 1733 and valued at $2.5 million, in the trunk of the taxi. When he reached his destination, he paid the driver but forgot to take his cello. [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: II Samuel 7:8-21

Some days are not easily forgotten. Pulling up in my future father-in-law’s driveway for the purpose of asking his blessing to propose to his daughter is a day etched in my memory. After an attempt to make small talk, which completely tanked, I mustered up the nerve to ask the question: “Mr. Tillman, may I have your blessing to ask Tonya to marry me?” He replied to my question with a few questions of his own, “How certain are you that Tonya will say yes? What makes you think she will say yes? She very well may say no.” Besides death, taxes and a train perpetually crossing Hamill Road in Hixson, Tenn., are there any guarantees in life? [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 5:9-12; 6:12-19

Franklin Graham visited Chattanooga on his first stop during the Decision America Tour in May of 2017. Graham mentioned a conversation he had with a man of a different theological persuasion in regards to his dad, the late Billy Graham. At the time of the aforementioned conversation, Billy Graham was still alive. Franklin commented that the charismatic man he was talking with said this about his dad, “I believe that when your dad (Billy Graham) dies, God is going to take His hand off of America.” What a statement! How ironic that since the death of Billy Graham, several pastors and leaders have heartbreakingly fallen. [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 3:8-21

On the game show Family Fued, contestants are asked to guess how 100 people responded to various survey questions. On a 2012 episode, a contestant had to provide the top answers to the following survey question: “When someone mentions ‘the King,’ to whom might he or she be referring?” The results were as follows: (1) 81 people said “Elvis Presley,” (2) 7 people said “God or Jesus,” (3) 3 people said “Martin Luther King, Jr.” and (4) 2 people said “The Burger King.”

The truth is there can only be one king. At any given time, only one can sit on a throne and be crowned as king. In II Samuel 3:8-21, the Bible underscores this truth as David and Ishbosheth couldn’t both sit on the throne as king. David is a pre-cursor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the one and only King of Kings. II Samuel 3:8-21 offers three insights to God’s one and only salvific plan.    [Read more…]

By Sam Greer
Senior Pastor, Red Bank Baptist Church, Chattanooga

Focal Passage: 2 Samuel 1:22-27; 2:1-7

In his book, Immeasurable, Skye Jehtani writes: “Compare two leaders. Leader A lifted an entire nation, mobilized his people with clear vision coupled with inspiring passion and launched a movement that has impacted literally everyone alive today. He set in motion an industrial and scientific revolution that produced the first computer, the first jet airplane, began human exploration of space and unlocked the mystery of nuclear war. By the time he died at 56, everyone on the planet knew his name. Leader A changed the world. Leader B lived during the same era and died just 21 days before Leader A, but his life was much different. At the height of his influence, Leader B ran a school with 100 students and he wrote a few books, but he was not widely regarded. When he died, almost no one knew his name.” [Read more…]