N. LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church October 3 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 “They’ll Know We are Christians”, “Send the Light”, “In His Time”. The service was concluded with communion and “Blest be the Tie that Binds”. 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 “Lawn Sale” and reading the scripture from 1 John 1:9. Pastor Bonnie began speaking about how lawn sales work, we clean out our closets and house and discard the things we don’t want to keep. We put it out and have a sale to make a little money off of the stuff we had collected and no longer want. She told the congregation that we all have things we are hoarding in our lives and we need to get rid of. Not to put it out there for others to grab hold of, but to put it in the trash can and let it get carted off, never to see again.
Pastor Bonnie spoke about the sin in our lives and how we need to kick it to the curb and move on. Scriptures tells us that sin is anything that takes our focus off of God and onto something else. When we start to replace worldly things above God, we are creating a sin. Because sin is everywhere, it is hard for us to avoid it. It is what we do with our lives around the sin is what makes it a sin or not to us. We can be faced with doing a sin, but if we turn away and stay focused on God, sin is averted.
Many books have been written and many movies made about the seven deadly sins. Even though the Bible doesn’t have just one verse to describe them, they are all in the scriptures. They are lust, envy, covetousness, anger, gluttony, pride, and sloth. We hear about them all the time, but we also know that so many have decided that these are not sins that are bad because they are in the world so much, people overlook them. Scriptures tells us that Jesus is the gatekeeper and that the road to heaven is narrow and the road to hell is wide. Why would the Bible tell us this? It tells us this because many will choose sin over Jesus because the people love being in this world and not looking toward the future. They are living in this world now and not thinking about eternity. Jesus tells us that he is the Good Shepherd at the gate and that we only can pass through, by accepting Him and following Him and not the world.
As Christians, we know that sin is real. Unbelievers don’t understand what sin is because they don’t want to live their lives for Christ. As Christians, we know that we can’t find true happiness here on earth, because our home is in Heaven with Christ. In Heaven, we won’t have to worry about sin, since there won’t be any. Satan will be defeated and never tempt us again. There are three things that sin does to a person, first it makes us uncaring to others, we are selfish, only thinking of what will make ourselves happy. Secondly, sin distracts from God and His plan for our lives. Lastly, sin destroys relationships with each other. We can’t love one another as Jesus asks us to do, if we are putting ourselves above our neighbors.
What can we do about sin? There are three things we can do about it. First, don’t judge other people. If we spent more time trying to get right with Jesus, we won’t have time to judge others. Secondly, we need to get right with Jesus that includes repentance and healing of our souls and living our life as Jesus would want us to do. Remember, WWJD, what would Jesus do? That is how we should be living out our lives, how Jesus would live it. Lastly, get passionate about pursuing Jesus. Study, read, talk, witness, fellowship with other Christians, are a few. Our first and last thoughts everyday should be on Jesus.
When we decide to strive to be like Jesus, sin shouldn’t have the hold on your life. We read in scriptures that the spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. The flesh is weak, if we don’t start making Jesus a priority in our lives. Jesus will and can make us stronger in Him. It seems like we all fall into the seven deadly sins in our lives, but we can overcome them, because Jesus overcame death, we can overcome the sins in our lives. It all depends on where we put our faith – in Jesus or in this world?
We can’t deny our sins in our lives, we must own up to them, but we can repent of them and make it right with God. Without repentance, we are separated from God and the life He has planned for us. We must see sin for what it is, a separation from God until we repent. Sin doesn’t have to take over your life, just keep focused on God for that perfect relationship.
Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting Pie Crusts for the Food Pantry in the month of October towards the Thanksgiving baskets. Our fall programs will begin October 3rd. Sunday School begins after church service each week. Bible Study begins on October 5th at 1:00 p.m. October 16th will be a breakfast/workshop beginning at 8:00 a.m. After services on October 17th, will be the Quarterly Business meeting. The ABCOM Annual Meeting, will be virtual this year and that is on October 21 & 22. 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 9:00 a.m. to noon.
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