What does First B Jackson teach about belonging?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First Baptist Jackson, the teaching on belonging starts with a question Brad Yates put directly to the congregation: can you answer 'who are you?' simply and clearly? Brad's argument, drawn from 1 Peter 2:9-10, was that if a person cannot answer that question, Satan will answer it for them. The text gives four phrases that answer it for the Christian: chosen people, royal priesthood, holy nation, and people for God's own possession. Each phrase describes something real and present, not a status to be earned or maintained by effort.
Brad was careful to say that belonging to this people is not the same as belonging to any nation, political movement, or ethnic group. The holy nation Peter describes has no borders and no ethnicity. It is made up of Christians scattered across the world, called to be visibly different within whatever context they find themselves in. Patriotism, Brad said, is healthy, but it has to sit below our identity in Christ, because a nation can set up moral guardrails but cannot legislate faith.
The phrase that Brad pressed hardest on was 'people for God's own possession,' because it speaks directly to the fear that we have done too much to belong anywhere good. He pointed to Peter himself, who denied Jesus three times, and to Paul, who killed Christians before God redeemed him. The point was plain: there is no sin that disqualifies a person from this grace. If you have faith in Jesus, you belong to God, and there is nothing you can do to ruin that.
Taught from 1 Peter 2:9-10 · 1 John 2 · Galatians 5 · John 17 · Romans 5
The passage taught · 1 John 2
1 My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.
2 And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
3 This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
4 One who says, “I know him,” and doesn’t keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn’t in him.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- December 3, 2023 You Are a Chosen People Brad Yates teaches First Peter 2:9-10, showing how God calls believers out of darkness into a shared identity as a chosen people, royal priesthood, and holy nation.
- December 3, 2023 You Are God's Own Possession Brad Yates opens 1 Peter 2:9-10 to show what it means to be chosen, holy, and God's own people, and why that identity calls us to proclaim Christ together.
Mentioned along the way
- June 18, 2023 The Lord Is My Shepherd A Wyoming pastor walks through Psalm 23, reflecting on community, grief, and the God who searches for wandering sheep and restores weary souls.
- November 13, 2022 If Anyone Is Thirsty, Let Him Come to Me John 7 shows Jesus at the Feast of Tabernacles, drawing a divided crowd. Who is He really? The pastor opens up the debate that still splits people today.
- June 25, 2017 He Himself Is Our Peace Ephesians 2:11-22 explored: once strangers to God, believers are now built together as His dwelling place through the peace Christ made on the cross.
- June 18, 2017 But God Acted Ephesians 2 shows how Christ tore down every wall of hostility between people, and why Christians have no room to hold onto racism, fear, or division.