LIVERMORE — At the North Livermore Baptist Church June 9 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 “When We All Get to Heaven”, “Sweet By and By”, and “Until Then”. 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 “Are You Good Enough for Heaven?” and scriptures from Mark 10:17-27. Pastor Bonnie started out by saying that most people believe they are going to Heaven when they die because they are morally a good person. So, are we really good enough to make Heaven our home when we leave this world? Not according to the Bible, God’s Holy Word.
Reading the scriptures tells a different story. We were all born sinners and as a sinner we are not entitled to go to Heaven. God’s Word tells us that all have fallen short of the glory of God and that the punishment of sin is death. How do we get to Heaven then?
Just being good doesn’t get you there, giving money to the church or to charities won’t do it, trying to be a moral person won’t do it, your parents or grandparents can’t get you to Heaven, baptism won’t do it, church attendance won’t do it, membership won’t do it and none of us can keep the Ten Commandments as God intended us to. It seems that we are all doomed.
But Jesus says there is a way and that way is through Him. In Matthew 7, it states that the road to Heaven is a narrow road but the road to Hell is a wide road. That is because few will follow the narrow road that leads to life and many will think the wide road is the direction many people are taking. But the wide road leads to death. Not every road will lead to Heaven.
Jesus tells us to take the narrow, less traveled road that leads to Him. He doesn’t want us to follow the crowd just to be accepted in this world. The Bible has stated where others have followed the crowd and got them nowhere. In Noah’s time, many mocked him for building the ark. No one stood up for him, the crowd was wrong and they all lost their lives.
When Joshua sent spies to the Promise Land, 10 of the 12 said the obstacles were too great and they wouldn’t make it there. The majority of the people were wrong and only 2 survived, the rest died trying to get to the Promise Land. This is why Jesus’ lesson is not to follow the crowds that are taking you the wrong way in this life. To the Christian, we are only passing through this world, waiting on the world that Jesus has gone to prepare for us.
The only way to Heaven is to have an encounter with Jesus. Jesus has said He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one gets to the Father except through Him. So, to get into Heaven we need to be washed in the blood of Jesus, we need to be sanctified by God, and we must be justified before God. To say we must be radically changed for Jesus, live a transformed life and be His forever, we must submit our life to Jesus, not just a part of it, but all of it.
Are you going to follow Jesus or this world’s crowd? Your answer will determine where you go when you draw your last breath here.
Announcements listed in the bulletin are that the congregation will be collecting any dry Pasta for the Food Pantry in June. No Bible Study this week.
You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Tuesday’s from 9 a.m. to noon.
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