Are You Cheating On God?

As we gathered in God's house to worship Sunday morning, we welcomed visitors. It was good to have Bob Bryan and Mildred Sharp back with us. Special prayers were requested for the David Wilhelm family, Kenny Vault, Calvin Reece and Brittney. Doug Cory opened our service with prayer.

Linda Abercrombie shared the devotional, "Be Still," and read Psalm 46:10: "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the Earth." Jesus taught us to pray reverently. Let the Lord be Lord and be still. In daily storms, make a point to be still and let God be God. Let Him take the struggles from your soul. Be still and let God work in your life.

Mitchell Lett asked God's blessing upon the offertory and he and Tyrel Lett served as ushers.

Congregational hymns led by Becky Johnson and Karen Gardner included "At The Cross." We were blessed with a special from Jerry Abercrombie, who sang, "The Old Rugged Cross."

Brother Mark Hall brought us God's message, "Cheating on God," with scripture from Jeremiah 29:11-13. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart."

Brother Mark began by telling us that our busy lives interfere with our conversations with God. We need to listen to Him and fall in line in life with God's plan. "Are you a planner? There are two kinds of planners: a literal planner and a dreamer planner. A dream plan is something that you are going to do, but probably won't but you dream about it anyway. A literal planner is a doer. As a child of God, you better run your plans by Him to make sure they fit with His plans if you live in His presence and He hears your prayers. The world says to dream big and work hard to reach your dreams, but if you chase your dreams and they separate you from God, they turn in to nightmares."

Brother Mark told us that if you are too busy for God, you are too busy and you are not in His presence. Ezekiel 14:1-5 tells us that idolatry will be punished. Brother Mark said, "The people had idols in their hearts. When that happens, you either repent or pay. When you have idols in your heart, things of the world that consume you will cause you to become estranged from God, and you will be out of His presence. We become adulterous Christians when we cheat on God. We lose some of the love and affection we have for God when that happens. He doesn't stop loving us, but we separate ourselves from Him and become out of His presence. God loves us and has plans for us -- peace and not evil, a future and hope. There is less peace and more evil in the world today than ever before because we got away from God's plan."

Brother Mark told us that he loved to bow hunt. "Bow hunting isn't a sin unless it takes precedence over God. When you have God's presence, there is nothing better. If you lose it, you forget how good it was. Repent, turn away and come back. We can become estranged by idols. Don't get consumed with things and put God in the back seat. Have you set up idols in your heart? Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. You don't have to give up the things that you enjoy, but don't put them ahead of God. Don't get too big for God."

After our hymn of invitation, we welcomed Bobby Bryan and Skip and Deborah McKenna into our church family. Rick Lett gave the benediction.

All are invited to attend worship services next Sunday at Mill Creek Baptist Church as Brother Mark's sermon title will be, "It Ain't About Religion; It's About a Relationship." Sunday school begins at 10 a.m. and worship service at 11 a.m.

Mill Creek Baptist Church is located three and one-half miles east of Noel, just off Highway 90. For information, call 417-475-7633 and leave a message.