As we gathered to worship Sunday morning at Mill Creek Baptist Church, we welcomed several visitors as Wayne Johnson opened our service with prayer. Special prayers were requested for Joann Boston, Betty and Barton Cooper, Clint Rutledge, Travis and Jessica and Linda's niece Debbie and daughter. Janice Mason shared a praise. Janet Chaney reminded everyone that we are still collecting for the Annie Armstrong Easter offering. The business meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday evening.
Linda Abercrombie gave the devotional "It's The Little Things That Get You" and shared scripture from Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no law." Linda talked about life's little things that annoy us and pile on to take us from happy to whiny and complaining. We need to understand the cause of our emotional distress. Sometimes we just react without thinking about the cause. Linda quoted an old proverb that says "It isn't the mountains that wear you out, it is the grain of sand in your shoe." We need to ask God to help us deal with the little things with His wisdom and grace.
Becky Johnson and Karen Gardner led the congregational hymns and we were blessed with a medley of hymns from the Baker children and Karen who sang "Fill My Cup, Lord." Jerry and Linda Abercrombie sang a beautiful "Why Me Lord" dedicated to Brother Mark as he begins his fourth year of preaching at Mill Creek.
Joseph Baker shared a short message with us about "Trusting in God." He read scripture from Matthew, Mark and Luke about learning from Peter's mistakes of doubting Jesus. Joseph also shared stories about his family praying and trusting in the Lord for healing and well-being and following God. He reminded us that Jesus died on the cross for us and we need to trust in the Lord, have faith, pray to Jesus and He will comfort us. Prayer is the key to everything to help us and guide us. Follow God and He will direct you.
Our pastor, Brother Mark Hall brought us God's message and began a sermon series on the "Holy Spirit." He began by reading Romans 5:1-5 and talking about people having grown kids who have left home and still helping them from time to time and maybe putting a little money in their bank account. "Jesus still makes deposits in our grace account because we still need help from time to time, too. Jesus is our grace bank. God appointed Him as our helper to keep us out of jams and to help us lead a successful Christian life. There is no reason not to lead a successful Christian life because we have an open account at the grace bank and a helper through the Holy Spirit."
Brother Mark read John 15:26-27 and John 16:1-15 as Jesus tells us to"Abide in Me" and the promise of the Holy Spirit. Brother Mark told us "The Bible calls the advocate the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. Jesus is our advocate before the Father and the Holy Spirit is the advocate to us. The Holy Spirit takes the things of God, takes the things of Jesus and shows them to us. When you get in a jam, ask the Lord what He would have you to do. Jesus has the mind of the Father and shows us what to do even though it might not be what we want. It will always involve trust and submission. Trust in Jesus Christ and the submission is to the Holy Spirit. We all think that submission to authority is a great thing for everyone else. For example, we all think speed limits are a great thing for everyone but us. If you are a rebellious Christian to the authority of the Holy Spirit, your Christian life won't be a great experience for you. When you are rebellious, you are constantly being convicted of sin. It is hard to understand someone who claims they believe in God and the Bible but they don't trust Jesus and they don't submit to the Holy Spirit. Believing in God is believing who He says He is and believing that he can do what He says He can do. The trusting is in the knowing."
In closing, Brother Mark said, "Your grace account opens up when you know Jesus Christ and submit to Him and the authority of the Holy Spirit." Brother Mark referred to John 17:3 and I John 2:3 which says "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments." Brother Mark told us, "We are not perfect, that is why we need the grace account. We need to keep the commandments for submission to the authority, the Holy Spirit. We need to know Jesus in our head and our heart. Knowing is where the trusting comes from. This week, we need to think about how well we really know Jesus. We need to keep God's commandments and submit to Him and His Holy authority. We need to confess with our mouth and believe in our hearts that Jesus Christ is our Savior and we will be saved. Jesus is busy making deposits to your grace account. You need to pay some back."
Our hymn of invitation was "Amazing Grace" and Wayne Holly gave the benediction. We invite you to worship with us on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. at Mill Creek Baptist Church. Sunday school begins at 10 a.m.
Mill Creek is located 3 1/2 miles east of Noel just off Highway 90.
Everyone is welcome.
Religion on 03/30/2017