Mars Hill Baptist Church

We are thankful for a house that was full this Sunday, Come to worship, and be prepared to hear and learn what God has for you each and every day. Most especially, pray for God’s Word to become embedded in your hearts and minds, and for his will in your life. God has different things for each of us to do. He doesn’t need us, friend, but we do need him and his mercy. Amen.

Bro. William Short’s message this week was taken from Isaiah 1:9-18: “Unless the Lord of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom; we would have been made like Gomorrah. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom; give ear to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah. ‘To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to me,’ says the Lord. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required this from your hand, to trample my courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices; incense is an abomination to me; the new moons, the Sabbaths and the calling of assemblies. I cannot endure iniquity and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they are a trouble to me, and I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves and make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless and plead for the widow. Come now, and let us reason together,’ says the Lord. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.’”

I have heard many people say that our country is getting more like Sodom and Gomorrah every day, and sadly that is true. We have same-sex marriage, illegal drugs being made legal, husbands and wives cheating on one another, children being disrespectful of parents, women aborting babies every day, children being abused by family members, people murdering people for no good reason, and the list goes on.

God is telling us in the passage above that he is tired of seeing people in his house with false intent—people who come because it is expected of them or because their parents or friends come. There is only one good reason that God will accept: come to worship him in truth.

Don’t give offerings expecting to receive something in return. Don’t give just so that others know what you have done. Don’t serve in the church expecting recognition from others. God is so tired of us “playing church.” I know sometimes I get up not feeling well, and look for a reason to not go to church. Do you think God ever feels the same way? He only wants us to worship him; it’s what we were made for. Worship him in spirit and truth.

What if your family gave a birthday party for you and everyone who came to that party ignored you? Now that would be a sad thing; it would make you feel unloved and unwanted. Maybe that’s how God feels when we attend church and ignore him, our wonderful Savior who died for our sins.

Remember the wonderful day that God reached down and saved your soul? It was a wonderful feeling, to be made whole. Do you still have that feeling? If not, maybe you have grown away from God or forgotten to repent of your sins.

Yes, the world is in bad shape. At times we are not as close to God as we should be; we are not a perfect people, and often we attend church for the wrong reason. But there is good news: We can repent of our sins, and God will wash them white as snow! Our sins may be as crimson as blood, but God will make them as white as wool. We can cease to do evil and learn to do good. God is only as far away as we let him get, only as far as it takes to get on our knees and repent of our sins.

We serve a wonderful God, one who is willing and able to cast our sins as far as the east is from the west; all we have to do is ask him.

Worship our Savior in spirit and truth. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He loves us enough that his Son Jesus died on a cruel cross for us, rose again on the third day and is ever interceding for us with the Father. Don’t look back to your past; look ahead to your future with Jesus Christ and recognize him as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Always remember that we deserve justice, but God gives us his blessed mercy. Amen.

Announcements:

VBS will be held each evening June 7-11. We have classes for everyone, so come and get to know Jesus in our “Journey off the Map.”

Our Care Net Baby Bottle Campaign will last through the month of June. This is an important funding ministry for Care Net; please give as God directs you.

Please come to our Wednesday night prayer meeting.

This Sunday, the youth will be serving lunch to everyone in exchange for a donation to the youth ministry. The food will be great, and you will be helping our youth with their missions.

Please pray for our church, our pastor and family, the sick, the lost, the hurting, our children, our schools, our missionaries at home and abroad, our military, our government and the peace of Israel. God is good, all the time! Amen.

Rocky Mount UMC

“Stay away from the water until you learn to swim.”  Has your mother ever cautioned you with these words? There are many conflicting ideas such as this in the Bible. Paul told us there is “strength in human weakness.” Jesus told us “to live eternally one must first die.”

Non-believers frequently point out these inconsistencies. In Isaiah 6:1-7 the prophet laments that he is “lost and lives in a lost world.” Sound familiar? Isaiah brings a dramatic image to mind in his description of an angel with coals of fire, swooping in to place them on Isaiah’s unclean lips. On this Trinity Sunday Isaiah’s final call to God “Here am I, Lord, send me” should be a wake-up call for all Christians to raise the shield of faith against scoffers, and take up Isaiah’s challenge to become seed-planters for the gospel.

Secure in the knowledge that God is always going to be perfectly on time, we should remember that the time is not defined. No one knows the day or the hour of the Lord’s return. We should enthusiastically go forth, letting our actions preach the sermon of Christ’s love, and letting the angel place those coals on our unclean lips. Don’t allow the delicate plants growing from those sprouted seeds have a chance to mature. Don’t be a “Sunday Christian;” raise your hand and tell our Savior “Here am I, send me.”

Join Rocky Mount on July 12 for an outdoor evening of fun, food and fellowship starting at 5 p.m. See the details on the community calendar or call the church office at 688-2204.

Hobby Day is held at 9:30 a.m. on the second Thursday of each month.

We welcome you to join Rocky Mount in worship each week.

Submitted by Charlotte Powell