LIVERMORE – At the May 5 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 “Redeemed”, “I Know Whom I Have Believed”, and “Take the Name of Jesus with You”. The service ended with communion. Linda Lyman is the organist, Janet Diaz is the pianist, and Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.
The sermon, titled “Check Your Vital Signs” and scriptures from Romans 6:1-14. Pastor Bonnie started out by saying how people today worry about their physical health, how to eat healthier, and how to keep their mind strong. Unfortunately, many people aren’t concerned about their spiritual health. Most people are more concerned about how they are now and not about eternity, by having a life that is showing love, being humble, being obedient to God, maybe not make us perfect yet, but will make us perfect in eternity.
As Christians, we know that when we have Jesus as our personal Savior, our sins are forgiven, but that doesn’t make us sinless in this world. We still need to follow God and all that He wants from us. What He wants is our total commitment to Him. There are a few things we need to do to check our vital signs for and with God. First, we need to listen to God, if we don’t, sin will win.
We listen to everyone else, why don’t we listen to God? If you are allowing sin into your life, you aren’t listening to God and for some reasons, we always seem to blame God when we sin. Secondly, we don’t look to Him as we should. Many times, people will chase after the material things in this world and not look towards Him who provides all we need. If we aren’t looking towards Jesus, sin will be let into our lives.
God tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God and all these other things will be added unto us. Thirdly, many people don’t believe in Him. Some people who have claimed Him as their Savior, have doubts that He can still create miracles or even take care of them. All God is asking us is to trust and obey Him fully. Then, fourthly, there are those who don’t know Him as their personal Savior.
They will never know the peace that He gives to those who follow Him. God is waiting for those people to call out to Him to be saved. Lastly, there are those who hear Him, but don’t answer Him. Sometimes we get so busy in this world, that we don’t listen to His voice to answer Him. This is when we let sin into our lives, because we feel we know what is best for ourselves.
In scriptures, Paul tells the believer that we should keep our thoughts on spiritual purposes, such as truth, love, grace, faith, hope, peace, evangelism, God’s Kingdom and righteousness, and not on worldly things like wealth, power, fame, lusts of the flesh, prideful things, and social status. We know, as Christians, we are living in this world for now, but our home is with Jesus in Heaven.
If Christians want to have God’s blessings, we cannot have any other Master, only God. We cannot give into the sin that Satan entices us with here on earth. We need to check our vitals to make sure they are Godly in our heart, soul, and mind, and not of this world.
Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting canned fruit for the Food Pantry in May. 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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