LIVERMORE — At the May 22 North Livermore Baptist Church 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 “What a Wonderful Savior!”, “Tell Me the Old, Old Story”, and “Jesus Shall Reign”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, titled “Things Jesus Left Us” and reading the scripture from John 15:9-13. Pastor Bonnie began as she reminded the congregation about what happened at the cross and the resurrection. She explained that if you believe in what happened at the cross and the resurrection, decided to follow Jesus and accept His free gift of salvation, not only did you get eternal life after this life on earth is done, Jesus also left other gifts at the cross for His followers to have now. When we think about Jesus’ death and resurrection, we usually figure that the only thing for us is His salvation from the bondage of sin and we will spend eternity with Him. But that isn’t all Jesus left for us.

In John 14:27, Jesus says “Peace, I leave with you; my peace I give you. Peace, Jesus left us peace for our lives. No matter what happens here on earth in our lives and around the world, Jesus left us His peace. When our lives are upside down, you can count on peace from Jesus. The question is, why then do we feel anxious, fearful, or even stressful? The peace we received from Jesus is guarding our minds, hearts, and our spirits. Why do we not seek His peace? It is ours for the taking.

We see in John 14:16-17a, Jesus states, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever – the Spirit of truth.” Jesus left us the Holy Spirit to live within us, to take care of us when Jesus ascended to His Father. As God told us, He would never leave or forsake us, God sent down the Holy Spirit to be with us always. The Holy Spirit is with us to guide our journey here on earth until we reach Heaven.

Jesus also left us joy, as He told us in John 16:20, “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.” As followers of Christ, we still experience loss in our life time. Those that watched our Savior die on a cross, felt the loss of a loved one, but yet, Jesus tells us that the grief or loss will turn into joy. On Good Friday, grief came to those who watched Jesus die, but the joy came on that first Easter morning when the tomb was empty and Jesus was alive. This world, our lives, sometimes are chaotic, but Jesus promises us to replace the sorrow with joy.

As Jesus was ridiculed and bleeding from the nails and the crown of thorns around his head, He asked His Father “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Jesus wants to let us know that forgiveness for our sins is just a conversation away. We all make mistakes, we mess up our lives a lot, knowing that Jesus will take our sins to His Father for forgiveness so we can have open communication with the Father is essential for our wellbeing. Because Jesus bore our sins on the cross, we are forgiven, all we need to get the forgiveness of our sins, is to take it to the Father.

Jesus left us His presence, so we know that He will always be with us. Matthew 28:20b, “…and surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age”. The disciples were tested in many ways, just as we are today, but we know that Jesus is always with us, He promised us He would be. We ask for many things in life, but all we really need is Jesus.

Not only did Jesus leave us these five things, there also were benefits for us from the cross. At the cross, Jesus took our place. He knew we could not endure it, so He did, once and for all. Also, from the cross, Jesus took all the pain from our sins on Himself. He took the separation from His Father, so we would never have to be separated again from God. Because of the cross, Jesus also clothed us in righteousness. Jesus covered our shame of our sins and gave us new clothing. As Jesus was taking His last breath on the cross, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom to open up the Heavens so we could have direct communication with the Father.

What else does the cross do for us? Because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the cross gave the power to be free from sin. We are all born in sin, and to be let out of that sin, we need to ask for forgiveness and it will be granted to us because of Jesus. The cross has the power to create a new person. When we accepted Christ as our Personal Savior, we are made new in Christ. Out with the old and in with the new! Because of His death and resurrection, we inherit a new life, and will spend eternity with Jesus. Also, the cross should make us realize how much God loves us. He didn’t like being separated from His creations, so He sent His only Son, Jesus to the cross to show us just how much He loved us.

Jesus went willingly and died on a cross so He could remove our sins, removed God’s Wrath from our lives, He reconciled us with God, Jesus redeemed us from living eternally in Hell, Jesus defeated death and Satan. Jesus was our substitute on the cross, all because He knew we couldn’t do it. There is no greater love!

Announcements listed in the bulletin was that the congregation will be collecting any kind of crackers for the Food Pantry in the month of May. The church will be collecting for ABCOM in the month of May. Bible Study will be Tuesday at 1 p.m. Advisory Board meeting after church. 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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