North Livermore Baptist Church shows its Christmas spirit.. submitted photo

LIVERMORE — December 11, 2022 Service: The congregation was welcomed 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 were “How Great Our Joy!”, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and “Joy to the World”. Linda Lyman is the organist each week. Janet Diaz is the pianist each week. Lew Lyman leads the music for the congregation each week.

Before the sermon, Pastor Bonnie explained the Advent wreath and with the help of the congregation, lit the candle of hope, peace, and the joy candle.

The sermon, titled “Joy is at the Heart of Christmas” and reading the scripture from Luke 2:10-11. Pastor Bonnie started out reminding the congregation an old saying of “three cheers for…” We have all heard that saying but did they know that Jesus gave us three cheers in His life? Scriptures tell us in John 16:33 – be of good cheer, I have overcome the world, Matthew 9:2 says be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven, and in Matthew 14:27 it says be of good cheer; it is I; don’t be afraid. What Jesus is telling us is that He has overcame the world, we are forgiven through Him and not to be afraid, He is always with us, He is in control of our lives. Why can’t you find joy in that?

There have been times in scriptures where people have jumped for joy. John the Baptist jumped for joy in his mother’s womb when he was near the unborn Jesus in Mary’s womb. People jumped for joy when the lame/deaf, or sickly were healed by Jesus, and people jumped for joy when the dead were raised after they had died. All these people jumped for joy because of what Jesus did for them or their family members. All Jesus wants from, us, His followers, is to jump for joy at the sound of His name. We shouldn’t need to wait for a miracle to happen in our lives, we should be joyful at all times. We should jump for joy as we celebrate His birth, His death, and His resurrection, for all that it means to us today. He did it all for us! Why shouldn’t we be joyful?

Christians have joy because He is God!  He is a saving and merciful God, because God loves us! The angels brought the good news to the shepherds so we can see that no matter where we are in this world, Jesus came for all of us. This should bring us joy. His birth, death, and resurrection were for all of us, just not for the elite. Even the wise men felt the joy when they came and met Jesus, their joy was overflowing so much they fell to their knees in worship. Jesus came to give eternal life to all mankind.

There is joy for Christians, because Jesus is our Savior – He was born, died, and resurrected to save us from our sins and to give us eternal life, He is coming back as a King – when he came as a baby, He did not come as a King, He came to save the world, but when He returns He comes back in glory as our King, and Jesus will come back as a judge – He will judge those who have rejected Him and the punishment will be death by fire in Hell.

Truth be known, the joy we as Christians have, is based on our relationship with God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I pray that you have the true joy that can only be found through Jesus.

Announcements listed in the bulletin are the congregation will be collecting Cereal for the Food Pantry in the month of December. Bible Study is at 1 p.m. on Tuesday. Please contribute to the Christmas project for the community. We are also collecting for the Retired Ministers and Missionaries Offering, Coming Events: December 18 – Christmas program with choir, December 24 – Christmas Eve service at 6 p.m., December 25 – Christmas Day service. The AA meetings are held on Friday nights at the church.

For information, check out our website at northlivermorebaptistchurch.org. You can email the church at nlbcmaine@gmail.com. Pastor Bonnie’s office hours are Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon.