NORTH LIVERMORE — At the December 20 service the congregation was welcome in 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 “Angels We Have Heard on High”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, and “Joy to the World”, with “Go Now in Peace” to complete the service.
This week the Christmas music program led by Linda Lyman was presented. Kim Cote and Lew Lyman sang “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem”, Bessie Mae Godin sang “Mary Did You Know?”, Janet Diaz played “Mary’s Baby Boy Child” on piano, Lew and Linda Lyman and Kim Cote sang “The Friendly Beasts”, Lew and Linda Lyman sang “Mary’s Sweet Smile” and Lew Lyman recited a special “’twas the Night before Christmas” to complete the music program.
The sermon, titled “It’s a Love Story” using the scriptures of 1 John 4:7-21. Pastor Bonnie began the sermon by explaining the Advent wreath, what it means and lighting the last purple candle. This candle is the “love” candle, being lit as a symbol of God’s love to all people. She also spoke about how Advent means “coming” and how people in the Old Testament were waiting on the Messiah and today as we celebrate the birth, we also look forward to the Second Coming of Christ.
As Pastor Bonnie began the sermon, she reminded the congregation that this season is not about us but God and His love for the people He created. She explained to the congregation that the top three-worded phases people like to hear are: 1) I love you…2) I forgive you… 3) Supper is ready.
Christmas is all about God and the love that He shows through the birth of Jesus Christ. As people we say we love you to many, but not many of us will show our love as much as God did for us. Christmas is about God showing Himself to us as a baby, born in a manger by a virgin woman, coming to this world to save us from our sins. His ministry, miracles, His Words, and His journey to the cross shows us the love that God had for us.
Pastor Bonnie spoke of three ways that God’s love is shown to us. The first way is by the usefulness God’s gift is to us. How is His love usefulness to us? It is usefulness because through Jesus we will live eternally with Him in paradise. The second way is by the cost of God’s gift. God gave His Son to die on a cross for us. He gave His best, God expects us to give our best to Him, by serving Him and telling others to repent of their sins and accept Jesus as their personal Savior. The third way is how God’s effectiveness in our life. God’s love should change us so others would want what we have, God’s love.
The number one reason that shows God’s love to the world is what happen on that Christmas morning about 2000 years ago, a baby was born, a baby that was born to die. Without Christmas there would be no Easter, which means, no death and no resurrection. God is love and He shows it to us in many ways. God showed His love at the birth of His son and at the cross, the death of His son, and more importantly, at the resurrection!
Announcements listed in the bulletin were that during the month of December, the congregation will be collecting peanut butter for the food pantry. The AA meetings are held on Friday nights at the church. The congregation is putting boxes of food together using the Adverse Advent Calendar for the food pantry, the boxes are due in to the church by Sunday, December 27. The Christmas Eve service will be on December 24th at 6:00 p.m.
For information, check out the new website at northlivermorebaptistchurch.org. Also, on the North Livermore Baptist Church’s Facebook page the sermon is posted and on their website is a link to YouTube for the sermon. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. to noon.
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