NO. LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church Sept. 12 service the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship was read and the Invocation/Lord’s Prayer was recited. The hymns that were sung was “There is Power in the Blood”, “The Church’s One Foundation”, “Jesus Paid it All”. The service was concluded with the congregation singing “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist and Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
The sermon, titled “My Name is Written on the Cross”, and reading the scripture from Colossians 2:6-16. Pastor Bonnie began talking about when people talk about the cross, we only talk about the three crosses when Jesus died and with the two other thieves. But there were many other crosses made and used for criminals. Going back to the cross, when Jesus died, we are reminded that He went there to take the punishment for all our sins. He was sinless, but became sin for us, so we could have hope in a life with Him in Heaven. That cross belonged to us, not Him. They put His crime above Him on the cross, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. If it was us on the cross, what would our sign say – liar, cheater, thief, gossiper, or it could have been the 10 commandments, haven’t we broken the commandments more than once? We are the guilty ones, not Jesus. He took it for us, knowing that we could never do it.
We can’t forget the cross, since so much happened. One thing that happened was our lives were transformed. Today, too many people are trying to clean themselves up and we can’t. Jesus did it by dying on the cross, taking the penalty for us. We were transformed from death to life when we repent for our sins and ask Jesus to take control of our lives. Jesus provided a free way to God through salvation by what He did on the cross. Another thing that happened was that because of the salvation Jesus freely gives us for asking Him, our souls are saved from Hell. Jesus made us alive in Him and gives us eternal life. We have a home with Jesus when we die from this world or Jesus comes back for His Church. At the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sins. Our debt has been paid. We owe nothing except to accept the free gift He is giving us through salvation. Jesus nailed our sins to the cross. In Him, we become a new creation and will never die. Our eternal life begins when we accept Him. We may pass from this world into the next with Him, but we will not die.
We were dead in our sins before Jesus went to the cross, our sins made us enemies with God. What Jesus did for us is take that away. When He died, Jesus was buried, and then resurrected, to show us that He is the King of Kings and that He would do the same for us if we accepted what He did at the cross. We also know that at the cross and when Jesus was resurrected, He defeated Satan. Satan has no power over us or Jesus. Even though Satan exists, we have to endure his presence, but Satan has no power over us, through Jesus we have the victory.
God is big enough to conquer our sins and because Jesus died for our complete salvation, we know that Jesus’ death completed our forgiveness, and through the resurrection, Jesus gave us complete victory. When Jesus went to the cross, all of our names went with Him to the cross, our names were written on the cross with our sins. When we accept Jesus into our lives, our names are taken off the cross and put into the hands of Jesus and written in the Book of Life. If you are living in this world without Jesus, your name is still upon the cross. Isn’t it time it comes off?
Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Canned Pasta for the Food Pantry in the month of September. Our fall programs will begin October 3 more information to come. Sept. 18 will be a gospel concert featuring Randy and Holly Sadler at 4 p.m. Pastor Bonnie won’t be in the office until 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 14. We are collecting for the World Mission Offering for the month of September. The AA meetings are held on Friday nights at the church.
For information, check out our website at northlivermorebaptistchurch.org. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday’s from 9 a.m. to noon.
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