NO. LIVERMORE — At the March 24 North Livermore Baptist Church service, the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” “All Glory, Laud and Honor” “Calvary Covers it All”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
The sermon, titled “Broken on Our Way to The Cross” and scriptures from Colossians 1:15-23. Pastor Bonnie began by stating that even though Jesus is perfect, He still dealt with brokenness. The brokenness of the people who on Palm Sunday cheered for Him and by the end of the week was yelling crucify Him because He was not the warrior they expected to conquer the Romans.
He endured the brokenness of commitments from His followers as they slept when He asked them to look out as He went to pray. He felt the brokenness of His relationships with His followers as one denied knowing Him three times and another betraying Him. And they weren’t even there at the cross when He died for them, only one was there. Jesus saw how another broken piece during His mock trial and His death sentence.
Jesus took all of these broken pieces and our brokenness and took it with Him to the cross. Jesus, a man who was pure and perfect, took the brokenness of the world onto Himself, so we could have a better future. The story of the cross is a way for all of us to know peace as the one who gave His life for us, took the broken pieces of our lives and put them back together for us. The suffering Jesus willingly took for us, broken for us, so we wouldn’t have to endure Hell and being separated from God.
Too many times in our society, people are stepping over the crucified body of Jesus. They are more interested in what this world has to offer and not what is offered to them from the cross. Jesus is crying out from the cross to all that will listen.
He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning, and the end, that He died to bring us His grace and salvation and only through the blood on the cross that Jesus shed will save us. The cross brings us the light of Jesus and it penetrates the darkness of sin we live in. We must individually reach out for the light that Jesus is offering us, no one can stop it, even Satan can’t.
The light of love that the cross brings us destroys hate, grudges, bitterness, and ungodliness. The power and glory of the cross destroys all the sins of the flesh. We must let go of this world and rely on Jesus. The cross also represents the healing power of our sickness. The sickness of our sins, healing our souls, our mind, and our body. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus on a cross overcame death, so we can too, through His saving power.
It seems that everyone wants to go to Heaven but aren’t willing to do anything about their sin. Sin will never enter the gates of Heaven because God despises sin. If you want to reach Heaven and have eternal life with Jesus, you must repent and ask for forgiveness of the sins we are all born in. If you don’t have Jesus in your life, stop stepping over His crucified and broken body and repent. If you choose this world and what it has to offer, then a place called Hell is waiting for you. You can change that by accepting and following Jesus.
Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting canned spaghetti sauce for the Food Pantry in March. Bible Study: Tuesday at 1 p.m.
You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Tuesday’s from 9:00 a.m. to noon.
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