Heritage Baptist Church

Evangelistic Meetings

heritageantioch — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:44:54 +0000

Join us on March 25-30 with Brent Sivnksty for a week of special meetings.

Brent’s Testimony
I was born into the home of an evangelist and started traveling with my family when I was six weeks old. I traveled with my family in meetings 10 months out of the year until I went to college. I was saved at the age of eight and was baptized a short time later. At the age of fourteen the Lord called me to preach at the Bill Rice Ranch under the ministry of Paul Levin and I surrendered to serve Him in whatever capacity He should choose. Two years later, while reading my Bible, the Lord made it clear to me that He wanted me to serve Him as an evangelist. After college and graduate school, through the counsel of godly men, the Lord directed my heart to serve in a local church so that I could mature, gain wisdom, learn the heart of a pastor, and be better prepared to serve the pastor and the local church in the future ministry of evangelism. The Lord directed me to Burge Terrace Baptist Church in Indianapolis, Indiana in the fall of ’95. I was Youth Pastor there for three years and during that time the Lord brought my wife, Becky, into my life. The Lord then led us to Community Baptist Church in the fall of ’98 to serve with Dr. Bud Steadman. The Lord blessed us with five wonderful years of ministry and has now led us to enter into the ministry of evangelism. During the eight years of being a youth pastor the Lord kept the fire for evangelism aflame in my heart by allowing me to preach revival meetings, Christian school chapels, youth rallies, youth retreats, and to preach on several mission fields. The Lord has made it clear to us that it is now His timing for us to enter into the ministry of evangelism, and we praise Him for the opportunity to serve Him in this capacity. - from Brent’s website

Our Newest Sunday School Class

heritageantioch — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 23:53:32 +0000

Our newest area of study is in the book of Revelation. Come join us in the auditorium Sunday mornings at 9:30 and add to our study. For those who miss a class the recordings are updated weekly on our Studies in Revelation page.

Christian Music Seminar in January 2012

heritageantioch — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:02:49 +0000

Music Conference: We have scheduled a music conference with Mac Lynch and Tim Fisher. It will begin Saturday, January 14 and run through Sunday, January 15. Please save the date. Brochures are available in the entryway. Please pray for a well-attended conference. This is a very important area in our pursuit of holiness. For more details you can download the conference pdf: Music conference 2012

Living the Exchange

heritageantioch — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:34:04 +0000

Sunday Evening Bible Study: We are preparing for a seminar that has been scheduled in May. Jeff and Anna Musgrave are going to conduct The Exchange Seminar. It is a method to lead people to Jesus, disciple them, and then help them do the same. Pastor Oesterwind will be teaching from a book titled Living the Exchange on Sunday evenings after the New Year.

Chapel Message: Unfaithful – 1 Samuel 2.30

heritageantioch — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 19:36:25 +0000

Eli epitomizes unfaithfulness to God and thereby really despised the Lord instead of honoring Him. This is evidenced in dramatic fashion when we look at his lack of self-discipline and his inability to restrain his children. This sermon confronts the problem of neglecting one’s salvation as a teenager and despising God when we act as though His Word will not come to pass as He has revealed it.

Chapel Message: Eli and His Sons

heritageantioch — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:50:25 +0000

Eli and His Sons

“If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him” (1 Samuel 2.25)? These are the words of a man who refused to confront the evil in his sons. They challenge us to realize that even though we fail to do right, God will make things right.

Chapel Message: Misguided Gratitude

heritageantioch — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:48:30 +0000

Misguided Gratitude (Daniel 4)

A king of an ancient country had a dream that revealed his presumptuous, ungrateful heart. But maybe the king was grateful; he was just thankful for himself. This devotional challenges our student to not take God’s work through authority for granted.

CHAPEL MESSAGE: Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving

heritageantioch — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:53:35 +0000

Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2.1-10)

November’s character-building trait is gratitude. Hannah exemplifies gratitude by voicing her adoration for the power, holiness, wisdom, and righteousness of God. Student apathy is best confronted by not only the removal of bitterness and enmity, but the igniting of a flame of gratitude. That flame may be kindled and become a tool to soften the hardest of Gospel-hardened people.

CHAPEL MESSAGE: The Need for Spiritual Redemption

heritageantioch — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 20:09:29 +0000

Spiritual Redemption

Ruth’s redemption in transitory, physical terms is a beautiful picture of our substantive, eternal redemption as believers. This message provides an understanding of this theologically rich concept. It stresses that we all need spiritual redemption and that self-redemption will never work.

Lessons in Life: The Second Commandment

heritageantioch — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 18:06:13 +0000

I faced a great dichotomy that I was never able to resolve as a Roman Catholic. On one hand, I was taught that without the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church I could never understand or know God. On the other hand, the transcendent features of Romanism left God far off and out of reach in everyday life. I felt as though God was never near unless I was within a stained-glass cathedral filled with mystical relics and old, artfully lit crucifixes.

The crucifix, censers, flowing robs of priests, hand lavers, and mysterious statues of church-selected saints or biblical figures all combined as a potent reality: God was in Heaven, far away and unsullied by the evils of this world. The lesson I learned was that I was part of that evil; therefore, I was left alone, abandoned because of sin. However, when I entered the churches of Catholicism, I could find God on the walls and in the statues.

This concept of God is as subtle and deceptive as all other forms of idolatry. It was also very blatant at the same time. We were able to manipulate God by bringing him down to us and hanging him upon our walls. When I became a true believer, I learned quickly that God is in His Word and not upon the walls. A faithful church proclaims God from the pulpit; it does not frame God in a portrait. A faithful church understands that believers are the image of God; inanimate objects are not. This is the crux of the second commandment:

Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; ⁵you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, ⁶but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The New Testament reinforces this command (see Acts 17.29; Romans 1.22-23; 1 Corinthians 10.7, 14) and countless stories in the Old Testament demonstrate the disaster of breaking it. Even in the future Tribulation period the world will face great and horrific plagues, but people will still not repent of the works of their hands. They will worship demons, and idols of gold, silver, brass, stone, and wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk (Revelation 9.20). One man observed that the hearts of men are perpetual idol factories. How does this work itself out in our lives?

Go to a church that preaches the Word of God. I know that sounds rather obvious, but think about the marginalization of preaching in our media-saturated culture. People would rather see God on the projection screen rather than listen to Him from the Word. The command is to preach not visualize.
The idolatry is also in the search people undertake for a god they can use and control. A god that can give 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential. A god that helps you Become a Better You or a god that provides 7 Keys to Improving Your Life Every Day. Perhaps a search for a god that heals when you touch the television preacher, or mystically pray the prayer of Jabez, or follow the appropriate method of 1,2,3 parenting for godly kids. We can’t control or manipulate God. The second commandment tells us to love Him and keep His commandments. If we do this, we are successful no matter the lack of money, fumbling prayer, or rebellious kids.
Idolatry enters into play when we fail to see God in the Scripture. Many love to emphasize certain attributes of God while neglecting others. That’s why we have homosexual and feminist theologians. These people craft a god they can use. But this god is not the God of the Bible. It is a god they’ve created to justify their sin.

Pastor Oesterwind