Do You Have Selective Hearing?

Jerry Abercrombie and Ashton Cory were celebrating birthdays and Kenny and Sheri White their wedding anniversary as we gathered to worship Sunday morning at Mill Creek Baptist Church. Wayne Johnson opened our service with prayer and special prayers were requested for Steve Mason, David Barton, Eileen Hawkins, the Pat Lett family and Mary. Praise from Karen Gardner on her new grandchild.

Linda Abercrombie led the congregation in the responsive reading, "God's Word." Tyrel Lett asked God's blessing upon the offertory and he and Rick Lett served as ushers. We joined voices in singing hymns of praise and enjoyed special music from Jerry, Bob Obenshain, Wayne and Karen.

Brother Mark Hall read scripture from Mark 9:2-7 as he talked about Peter who had a hard time keeping his mouth shut and his ears open. "We spend a lot of time talking about Jesus, but how much time do we spend listening to Jesus? As Christians, we need to talk about Jesus, but we also need to listen to Him. How do we listen to Jesus? Do we have selective hearing?"

Brother Mark read Jeremiah 11:6-8 which says we need to obey and incline our ear to Jesus. "If we hear Jesus, we need to intently listen to Him because first, it can save you from the storms of life and second, it can save your soul." Brother Mark told us the storms of life will come, but we can survive them if we will come to Jesus, hear His words and do what He tells us as it says in Luke 6:47-49 in the words of Jesus. "It doesn't do any good to go to Jesus if we don't do what He tells us, but we have to hear Him first. He has the answer to any storm."

Brother Mark also told us that intently listening to Jesus can save your soul. He read Luke 8:4-13 and the Parable of the Sower. "The seed that is sown is the word of God. There were four groups of people. Only one listened to God. There is a big difference between asking Jesus to save us from our problems and asking Jesus to save our souls. No problem in one of life's storms is more important than the salvation of your soul. Go to Jesus and ask Him to forgive you of your sins and save you. There are three requirements -- you will have to know who Jesus is, you will have to hear His voice and you will have to follow Him. John 10:2-30 says Jesus' sheep heard His voice and they followed Him. We must hear His voice, be known by Him and follow Him to have that eternal home in Heaven."

In closing Brother Mark asked, "Can you hear His voice? Have you been listening intently? Do you know you have a home in Heaven? Someone shouldn't just talk you into being saved, because the devil can talk you out of it. You must hear the voice of Jesus."