Good morning, let's see if we can cover what we got coming up
this week. Got a busy week.
Tomorrow at 11:30 we have the prayer lunch.
Need to let Chuck know by the end of the day so we all know
how many to prepare for. Then at 3:00 tomorrow we have a
wedding, Lamar and Juan. The whole church is invited,
right? All right then Wednesday and we
need it says 1030 in here, but we going to leave the van will
leave at 9:30 because we go into roof 61 and Natchez and in it,
you know. So be here at 9:30, not 10:30.
If you're going to be here at 10:30, you'll be by yourself.
We will already be gone next Sunday.
We will have Sunday school. We will have the men's
breakfast. Then we have the elders meeting
and we have Sunday school and church and then we will have a
board meeting following church. Are there any other
announcements? All right, we will continue
then. Please stand open your hymnal to
#20 great and mighty. We will sing it through twice.
May be seated. As I was thinking this week of
what to cover, what to have for the call to worship, I had
different thoughts. First of all, happy birthday,
United States. We're 250 years old as a nation
and we think that's a long time, but it's really as far as the
world goes and the nations in the world, we're a young nation.
But I, I found a scripture, a couple of scriptures that I
thought were feeding for that righteousness.
This is from Proverbs 1434. Righteousness exalts a nation
which can, but sin condemns any people.
And then another one from Psalm 3312, Blessed is a nation whose
God is the Lord, the people he chose for his inheritance.
And I was thinking then as I was doing this, I was thinking about
history, 250 years as we've been a nation.
This church here has been I think since 1832.
And this morning, the Clarion Ledger, they had some articles
about history and they had some mistakes, I think.
And they had a list of the oldest churches in Mississippi.
And some of them they listed were way after our church.
But of course they couldn't cover all the churches, but you
know, they just picked out some. Then they said the oldest
restaurants, you know, one of the one they said was one of the
oldest restaurants in Mississippi, Gibbs out here to
learn it. And they said it was from 1880,
but it hadn't been a restaurant that long.
The building's that old. But the restaurant, I can
remember when it started because when I was young, it was still a
general store. And they went on with other
things that, you know, talking about the oldest colleges in the
state and they didn't even mention Mississippi State.
And we're a lot older than some of the ones that they gave in
the in the article. So when you're talking about
history and thinking back on history, but you can make
mistakes when you're trying to tell people something.
But there's one thing in history that means more than any of
these other things to me and to you.
You know what that is? Good Friday, That's the day that
Jesus took my sins and your sins and took them to the cross so
that we can have salvation. So that's one Day in History
that is more important then the oldest restaurant, the oldest
church or whatever else we find in history or the oldest nation.
So that's my thoughts. I want to call to worship this
morning. Would you join me in prayer?
Finally, thank you for the many blessings you've given us.
Thank you for this day and the opportunity we have to come
together just to study and to praise you.
Say your word, praise you and thank you for our nation that we
live in, that it's been here as long as it has.
I pray that we may continue to worship you as a nation and as a
people, and I pray that you will go with us through the coming
week that we might do your will in our lives.
All these things we ask in Jesus name, who taught us to pray.
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, Thy
Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us our debts
as we forgive our debtors. Believe us not temptations, but
deliver us from evil. Reliance, the Kingdom, the power
and the glory. Forever.
Do we have children's services? No sure and no sure.
Please stand again. Turn to number 449 because he
lives. We will sing all three verses.
Lives. Amen.
You may be seated my grandmother's favorite hymn.
Always think of her when I hear that.
Thank the Lord for her and what a blessing that she was to me.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, I do thank you,
Lord, for this day. And Lord, an opportunity that we
do have to come together as a church family and to worship,
Lord, to give you praise and honor and glory for all that
you've done for us. Lord, how you continue to give
us that grace and mercy that we need each and every day.
Lord, how you loved us and sending your one and only Son
Jesus Christ to this earth. Lord, as he willingly came and
sacrificed himself on the cross and then rose again three days
later, conquering death and conquering the grave.
Lord, we give thanks and Lord, we are here today to worship.
We simply ask, Lord, that as we come together and Lord, as we
lift these songs of praise, as we give our offering, Lord, as
we come to the table and Lord it as we hear your word, we just
simply pray that your Holy Spirit is with us and Lord, that
it guides us and it moves us to where we need to be so that we
can be effective witnesses for you in this world.
Lord, we do give thanks for our country.
We give thanks for the blessings that that we have because of it.
Lord, we never pray that we will forget those who gave the
ultimate sacrifice so that so that we could have these
freedoms and these these blessings and these
opportunities, Lord. And we simply pray for our
country in the days ahead, Pray that we will be a light for all
of the world, Lord, and that we would point towards the one true
light, our Savior Jesus Christ. And we ask all this in His name,
Amen. Our communion hymn is number
406. Come to the table.
Of course, we'll sing it through twice.
Christ invites to this table all who profess the Christian faith
and who seek the mercy of God. God in Christ breaks down the
walls that make us strangers to ourselves and divide us from one
another. We are the body of Christ.
Around this table we enact our faith.
The body broken is restored to wholeness, and the lifeblood
poured out brings healing to our world.
Let's pray. And most blessed is Heavenly
Father that we stand before this table.
Help us to truly understand this.
Only by your invitation and Christ sacrifice, we're allowed
to stand here as we protect you. This, this bread, help us to
open our hearts and our minds and our souls to receive it as
it was meant to be. Thank you, Lord, for your Son
Jesus and his sacrifice and his willingness to go to the cross
of each and every one of us. We ask all this in Christ's
name. Father, thank you for the men
and blessings you give us. Thank you for this day and the
opportunity we have to come together to worship and praise
your name. Most especially, we thank you
for this table and the invitation we have to come and
partake of its emblems. Now.
If you partake of this cup, we're reminded of Jesus blood.
It was poured out on the cross for the forgiveness to our sins.
I pray we may partake in a manner that's pleasing to you.
In Christ name I pray. Amen.
The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread and
we'd given thanks. He broke and said this is my
body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.
In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, this cop
is the new covenant in my blood. Do this whenever you drink it in
remembrance of me. For whenever you eat this bread
and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
Some powerful juice this morning, wasn't it, Miss Beth?
This morning as we look into God's Word, I want you to turn
to Matthew Chapter 7. Matthew Chapter 7, and we're
going to begin in verse 24. And as we prepare to read this
passage of Scripture, I want to want to ask you a question about
what do you know about a foundation?
What do you know about the importance of a foundation as
you are building something? I'm sorry.
OK? It holds everything up.
OK, OK. What's that?
You better have one. OK, that's a good point.
I'm not a builder, as you all know I am.
I'm just going to say limited in my skills of building, fixing
things, anything mechanical in nature.
I guess that's, that's about it. Everything that you're supposed
to be able to do. I don't do any of those really.
Well as a, as a fellow, I don't know what that means except that
I got a call on people like Jess and Randy and Chris and Charles
and all of these fellows within the church who, who do have some
expertise in those things. But I'm, I'm like you in this.
I know you better have a foundation, and I know it better
be a strong foundation. You can spend a whole lot of
money building something, and you can have the nicest things
within that structure that you have built.
You can spare no expense on the furnishings, but if you don't
have a strong and solid foundation, I don't care how
much money you spend on what's above it, if you don't have a
solid foundation, it will all be gone.
And this is what Jesus says to us here in these verses.
Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts
them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on
the rock. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it
did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock.
But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put
them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house
on sand. The rain came down, the streams
rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it
fell with a great crash. This morning I want to talk to
you about your foundation and what it is built upon.
You could have had the greatest grandparents in the world.
You could have had the greatest parents in the world.
You could have attended the greatest church that you think
there ever was in the world. But you can't stand on that
foundation. As good as your grandparents
were, as good as your parents were, as good as the church that
you went to were, they can't be your foundation.
You can't put your trust in them that you're going to be taken
care of, that your sins are going to be forgiven, that you
were going to be able to walk through this life when times are
hard just based upon those things.
I would dare say that if you said that you had your parents
were were really fine and and great people that they knew
Christ as their Savior, that they brought you up in a way
that you would be know the Lord your parents the same way the
church that you go to. I certainly hope and pray that
our young people of today when they are older, say that when I
was young, the Bible was preached, the word of God was
preached. The foundation that we build
upon better be built upon Christ.
It better be built upon a relationship with the Lord that
can stand against anything and everything that comes our way if
we think that we are going to be able to rely on self and rely on
our own knowledge. And let let me say this about
foundations. Foundations and I've been
watching some YouTube and my children hate when I say this,
but I have and I was watching this fella build this house and
he put it up in three days. Now granted it it was just a
very small it's almost like a tiny house and he didn't have it
furnished out on the inside. But but the majority of the
house was built in three days and about 75% of the video was
owned building the foundation. And I was just watching all that
went into this building of this foundation of this of this very
small house. You would think, I think it was
only like 300 square feet total or something like that.
I mean, not very big, not enough for a whole family to live in
for sure. But he spent all of this time
and all this money on the foundation of the house.
And I and I thought about, you know, in, in our lives, the
foundation, the the thing that we, we can count on that we put
our trust in. I'm asking you this morning, is
it built upon Christ, Is it built upon your education?
Is it built upon what you have earned?
Are you thinking about retirement and then things are
going to be fine because of the the foundation that you have
built. We, we talk about all the time
as we are outside of, of church about what's going on in our
world. And that, you know, I've the
thought of Social Security for me, as I am somewhat getting
closer to it, I am beginning to wonder, will Social Security
even be there when I reach the age when I should receive it?
Some of you are already receiving it now.
And you think about 10 years from now, will Social Security
still be there? Are we doing what we need to do
to prepare for the future as a nation, as we are preparing to
take care of those who are in need of that?
Have we been preparing or have we been kicking the can down the
road thinking somebody will do it?
The next administration or the one after that or the one after
that, I don't want to address that.
I want to do something else that's going to make people feel
good. Now, some of you may not be
worried about retirement. You're just living for now, but
I promise you, when you hit 656667 years old and you're
you're ready to stop working, you're going to think, wow, I
wish I would have prepared a little better.
I wish I had a foundation set that I was going to be able to
rely upon. The same thing happens to us in
our actual lives as we are preparing for the future.
A lot of times young people don't give any consideration to
to the Lord and to a relationship with him.
And they say, I'm going to do that later.
Right now, I want to just have fun.
I want to do what I want to do. I'll think about that later.
And then they get into their 20s and their early 30s and they're
thinking about what I want to find someone to, to, to, to, to
be my maid. I want to find someone that I'm
going to have children with. I'm going to prepare for the job
that I'm going to to do and, and I want to make some money and
I'm going to push that down the road a little bit further.
And then they have their life and they, they moved on.
They turn around, all of a sudden they're 50 years old and
they're thinking, where's time gone?
And they're thinking, well, I got to do some things before I
make that commitment. And they push it down the road
again. And then they wake up one day
and they realize, you know what? I don't know how many years I
actually have left on this earth, and I wish I would have
built a better foundation. The storms are going to come.
The problems are going to come. Whether we're in our teens,
whether in our 20s, thirties, 40s, fifties.
Problems are coming. And we need to think about what
kind of foundation have we built?
Where do we we place our faith and our hope and our trust?
Is it in Christ? Is it in the God who created the
universe? And I want to go and I want to
read you a scripture that I've read at the memorial service.
And it's from Isaiah chapter 40. And I'm going to begin in verse
21. And it says this.
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its
people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens
like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
He brings Princess to Naughty, and reduces the rulers of this
world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no
sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground,
that He blows on them, and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps
them away like chaff. To whom will you compare me, or
who is my equal, Says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens.
Who created all these? He who brings out the starry
host 1 by 1, and calls forth each of them by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength.
Not one of them is missing. Why do you complain, Jacob?
Why do you say, Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord.
My cause is disregarded by God. Do you not know?
Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,
the creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can
fathom. He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the week.
Even used grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall,
but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles.
They will run and not grow weary.
They will walk and not be faint. What does your foundation look
like as you are going through the different phases of life?
Does that foundation remain strong and secure?
And when the storms come and the winds blow and you call upon the
Lord and He is there and He answers you, you don't doubt,
you don't wonder, is God there? You may wonder if he's hearing
you and understanding how I'm messed up this situation that
you're in right now. But you know that he is there.
And when we call upon his name, He's going to answer.
There is nothing that is makes him tired or weary.
I was when I was walking up here, Lisa was sitting there and
she said, you know what I said what she said power washing is a
lot harder than it looks like. I was like, yes, it is.
I watched my dad do it when I was growing up and I was
thinking I'm ready for this. I'm ready for this.
And he finally turned me on and let me have the power washer.
It looked like it was so much fun, but when you actually get a
hold of it and start doing it, it's not fun at all.
And then Matt was we were growing up and we were at my
dad's and we were power washing and Matt was said he was ready
and he had on sandals. He said I'm ready to power wash.
I said no you're not. I said look at what shoes you
have on. I said if this thing hits your
foot, he said I'm not going to let that hit my foot.
You think I'm dumb let me have that power washer.
I said OK here you go. Handed him the power washer.
Still got a scar on his foot today where he let that thing
hit his foot. Nothing surprises the Lord.
He does not grow tired and weary as we do.
He is our foundation. He is our rock.
He is where we put our hope and our trust and our faith.
The winds are going to come, the storms are going to howl.
And are we going to be scared? Are we thinking the house is
about to crumble, or are we simply clinging to the rock and
knowing he will not fail me? We talked about at the memorial
service about Mr. Sam Weeks and and the and the and the thought
process of if you ever sat down with him, it didn't take long
for you to understand that that his intellectual prowess was
much higher than mine. And he was talking about things
that were happening in the world and he wanted to discuss when I
was just sitting there shaking my head.
Yes, Sir. Oh yeah, yes, Sir.
I didn't even know what he was even talking about.
And finally, I think he realized he didn't know what I'm talking
about on this. So he moved to another subject
and on he went and said, now what do you think about that?
And I was like, is it almost time for us to eat or Miss Darce
has got to be ready for us. But all that knowledge, all that
intellectual ability that he had, he had to put into
practice. You see, we can have a
foundation that is there waiting for us, that never grows tired,
that never grows weary, that never fails, that is simply
waiting on us to answer the call.
But if we don't put it into practice, that foundation does
this actually no good. It's sitting there waiting for
us to stand upon it, to hold on to it, to cling to it.
But it takes us being willing to say, I submit to you, I can't
have a foundation in and of myself.
I need you, Lord. And once we do that and we put
that faith in the practice, we have that hope.
We have that foundation that doesn't crumble, that doesn't
fail this morning. Where is your faith?
Where is your hope? Where is your trust?
And how strong is your foundation?
I pray that today, if you don't know Christ as your Savior and
Lord, that you do it today. He is waiting.
All He is waiting for you to do is Lord, I need you.
I'm a Sinner in need of a Savior.
And then for those of us who are Christians, and we have been for
a long, long time, maybe you hadn't thought about your
foundation in a while, but you've been, maybe you've been
worried about the world and everything that's going on in it
and, and it's causing you concern and you're watching the
news on a regular basis and all you hear are all of these
negative things that are happening.
The foundation is the same strong and true as ever.
Put your faith in your hope and your trust in him and the
worries of this world. You don't have to worry about
it. He'll take care of you.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, this morning as
we claim you as our rock, as we claim you as our foundation,
Lord, we give thanks that you are the creator of the universe,
that you are from everlasting to everlasting, that there is no
one that we have that we can compare to You.
There is none like you. Lord, this morning we pray that
you will refresh us, that you will renew us, that you will
remind us that we serve the one true and living God.
That we have hope when there is no hope, Lord, that we have
faith in the one who defeated death and the grave.
We serve the one who never fails.
We serve the One who has prepared for us an everlasting
home for all of eternity. That there will be no more
night, no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
There will only be light, there will only be hope and faith and
trust and love in the presence of the Father and of the Son and
of the Spirit. Lord, we thank you for our
foundation. May we cling to it daily and may
we share it with others so that they can have the same.
We ask all this in Jesus name, Amen.
Please stand open your hymnals to #437 Wherever he leads, I'll
go. We'll do the first and fourth
verse. Amen.
Thank each of you for being here today.
I do hope you had a great weekend.
I hope you're looking forward to this next week and serving the
Lord. And I hope today you had a truly
an opportunity to worship the Lord and that your foundation is
found in him and in him alone. Heavenly Father, we do give
thanks, Lord, for your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and our
Lord. We pray Lord, that as we leave
this place that we go forth knowing that you go with us,
before us and behind us and beside us and wherever we go,
Lord, you are with us and you will protect us.
We thank you for that. In Jesus name I pray.
Amen. None.