The Lure Of Sin

Jimmy Easter was celebrating a birthday, and he and Jeanette were celebrating their anniversary, as we gathered to worship Sunday morning at Mill Creek Baptist Church. We were greeted by Wayne Johnson and special prayers were requested for many, including the John Garvey family, the Amos Reece family, Carrie Edens, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Dick, Don Chaney, Bailey Sherman, Charlie Pendergraft, Jim Farmer, Dot's sister, the Beebe family, Debbie, Barbara Cory, Carrie and daughter.

Linda Abercrombie gave the devotional, "Silver and Gold," with scripture from Isaiah 60:8-9. It was a story of the devastation of a marriage breakup and the heartbroken woman who sought God during the dark times of her life. Through seeking God, she regained new healing, freedom to love God and the confidence that the best was yet to come. We can come through times of darkness and pain and bear treasures. The hard part of suffering is the feeling that it may never end, but there can always be a silver lining with faith in God.

Janet Chaney talked about Annie Armstrong's Easter offering during the month of March and the week of prayer for Missionaries. The offering is used to support Southern Baptist mission work in North America, where three out of four people don't know Jesus Christ as their Savior. It began in 1895 and tells of Jesus' love and salvation.

During our song service, we were blessed with special music from Kenny and Teresa Farmer who sang "Blessed Assurance," Jerry Abercrombie who sang "God On the Mountain" and Wayne Holly, Karen Gardner and Jerry who sang "My Didn't It Rain" with piano accompaniment from Becky Johnson. Rick Lett and Tyrel Lett served as ushers and collected the offertory.

"The Lure of Sin," with scripture from James 1:12-21, was the title of God's message brought to us from our pastor, Brother Mark Hall. It was a continuation of the previous message on trials, tribulations, tragedy and having patience and perseverance. Brother Mark began by telling us that temptation will do us in. "We get dragged away into sin. Sin doesn't always look evil in the beginning. It is kind of like rat poison. It is not all poison. There is something there to lure the rat in first. The tribulations we face in life aren't always our fault. God told us we would have trials. The tragedy we face in life isn't always our fault, but we face tragedy in life because we love people and don't want to lose them or see them hurt. We walk into trials on our own. Sin is rampant in this turbulent and fallen world. We will all experience tribulations, trials and tragedy, but God gave us a flu shot to help prevent sin. You might still get it, but there are things you can do to lessen the effects."

James 1:19-21 tells us, "So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

Brother Mark's message focused on those four things to help us avoid sin. First, as the scripture tells us, we need to be quick to listen. "Most of what we know, we learn from listening. We remember 20 percent of what we hear, so are we only 20 percent as smart as we should be? Never regret that you should have listened more. Second, we need to be slow to speak. We never have to regret the things we didn't say. Sometimes we need a governor on our mouth. Maybe if we were better at listening we wouldn't be so bad at talking." Third, be slow to become angry. "Every minute you spend angry costs you 60 seconds of happiness. It is hard to be happy and mad at the same time. How many of you would like to be the kind of person that everyone enjoys and is comfortable being around? And fourth, stay away from the temptation. "Temptation is not the sin. Even Jesus was temped by Satan, but temptation will cause you to dance around and fall in the hole. Temptation catches us if we don't get stay away from it. With sin, you always wind up deeper than you wanted to go. Turn your head and walk away from the temptation before you fall into the sin. Temptation always takes you farther than you want to go. The more we entertain temptation, the more it weakens our moral and spiritual resistance until we are in the middle of sin. God will warn you, but He won't keep you from crossing the tracks."

James 1:15 tells us how sin will kill us, "Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death." Verse 21 tells us "Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls."

In closing, Brother Mark said, "Sin is a killer. Christ died for sin. The unbeliever dies in sin. The word is our protection from the temptation of sin. Jesus is our protection from the sin we have already committed. He paid the price for us. None of us have lived good enough that we don't need God's forgiveness."

Our hymn of invitation was "Lord, I'm Coming Home," and Wayne Johnson gave the benediction.

The widow/widower's lunch will be on Saturday, March 24, and remember to spring your clocks forward as daylight saving time begins next Sunday.

We invite you to worship with us at Mill Creek Baptist Church on Sunday mornings at 11. Sunday school begins at 10 a.m. You are welcome to attend.