LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church August 25 service, the congregation was welcomed by Pastor Bonnie Higgins at 9:30 a.m. to begin the service. The Call to Worship, Invocation/Lord’s Prayer were recited. The hymns that were sung were “Since I Have Been Redeemed”, “Without Him”, and “Here I Am Lord”. The service ended with “Go Now in Peace”. Linda Lyman is the organist, Janet Diaz is the pianist, and Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

The sermon, titled “Have You Forgotten Me, Lord” and scriptures from Hebrews 13:5-6. Pastor Bonnie began by saying that our lives don’t seem to go as planned. And then we ask God why didn’t things go the way we prayed about it. Probably, because we forget who God is and we need to remind ourselves what God has promised us.

Many times, we will say “God, you promised this” or “God, I expected this from you”, when we don’t get what we want. God has promised that He would take care of us, that He will supply us our every need. We forget that if it is in God’s Will, He will provide for us. God is asking us to humble ourselves before Him, to pray, and to seek His face when we are in a time of need. God has also promised us that He would answer our prayers, only if they are according to His Will.

Even Jesus when He prayed in the garden, “yet not My will but Yours be done.” Jesus showed us that only if the answer is in God’s Will, will it be answered. God also promised us that He would forgive us of our sins. He told us that we need to repent of our sins and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus promised us that He would recognize us in Heaven and that we would be with Him and if we confess our sins in this world, He will know us before His Father who is in Heaven.

In this world, life is so uncertain. We don’t know what the next minute will be but we know God does. When we feel anxious in this world, we need to depend on God, continue doing good works in the name of Jesus, and be focused on spiritual wealth, our inheritance waiting for us in Heaven. When our lives change, and it will, we need to remember that God never does change.

We must let Him guide us and redirect our lives towards Him. We know when our hearts are hurting because of sickness, death of a loved one, an accident, etc. we must replace the fear of the unknown with our faith in Jesus, we need to replace our sorrow with God’s Word, and we need to replace our heartache with our trust in God. During our lives, there is a time when we feel lonely.

God wants us to remember that He will never leave us so He will fill the void we feel when no one is there for us. Even though, God created us, the sin in this world has broken us. We will get sick, but God is telling us to trust Him, to stay faithful to Him, to stay busy in Him, and to stay focus on Heaven, our final resting place.

There are times when we feel that our prayers go unanswered. We get frustrated when we need to wait for an answer from God. Sometimes the answer is yes, other times, no, and sometimes it is wait, He has a better plan for us. God always answers our prayers, sometimes it just isn’t what we want to hear. We need to let God comfort us, restore us, redirect us, and let God use us for His glory.

Announcements: we will be collecting canned tuna for the Food Pantry in September. Bible Study – Tuesday at 1 p.m.