Greater Mount Pleasant Baptist Church

Good Morning and Happy Mother’s Day! Today service will start at 10am virtually!Good Morning and Happy Mother’s Day! Today service will start at 10am virtually!

Out of Our Poverty God has blessed each of us with gifts, talents, and abilities. We are now to be good stewards by faithfully giving our blessings back to God with a pure heart. But what determines a pure heart? When Jesus saw the widow offer her two small coins, He said she had given "out of her poverty" (Mark 12:44). It required great humility to offer those coins, a true lack of self-importance. She knew her coins had no real value, but with a deep devotion for God and a ...strong desire to obediently serve she gave what she had. The widow offered her gift with a pure heart! We are all called to this type of pure giving - a giving motivated by love, and "valued" by obedience. Our gifts to God may appear big or small in our eyes and in the eyes of the world, but when lovingly given in response to His leading, every gift is received as a sweet and fragrant offering. As we give back to the Lord by ministering to the needs of others, we often perceive the results to fall far below expectations. To keep from being discouraged, we must always remember that our true offering is in our obedience and love. Our offering must never be judged by the outward appearance of how it is being used. This truth is even more crucial when the results of ministry begin to exceed our expectations. The great danger of "success" in any ministry effort is the tendency to shift our focus to what WE have accomplished and given with OUR abilities. But again, our offering must never be judged by the outward appearance of results! 1 Corinthians 4:7 "For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?" God deserves the glory for ALL the results. He gave us our ability as well as the opportunity to minister and give. We fall into sinful pride anytime we forget the One who has provided all; "Your boasting is not good. Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?" (1 Corinthians 5:6). We must always maintain a sense of poverty as we give back and minister to the Lord. We can give nothing of real value; indeed, we are very poor! Yet, we can continue to give our all and love Him with all our heart. Let's give praise and glory to the Potter who continues to shape and mold us into a vessel of great beauty. Let's guard against every attempt to place a value, large or small, on what we offer our Heavenly Father. And, with a spirit of humility, let's continue to abundantly give out of our poverty.

We Have Been Made Right in God's Sight Read: Romans 5 Faith Brings ... Romans 5:1-2 1 Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace* with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. By our faith, we have been made right in God’s sight. We don’t have to live in constant fear about what God thinks of us. We don’t have to worry about when we are going to spend eternity. All of this is covered in what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. No matter what happens, the big things are covered. Sure, we all have our trials ad our tribulations in life. But we also know that we are saved and safe in the Lord. As Christians, we know Heaven is our future home, which gives us great confidence and peace.

What Happens to Those Who Have Never Heard the Gospel? Scripture Reading - Romans 1:18-30 God’s Anger at Sin - Romans 1:18-20 18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.* 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualitieshis eternal ...power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. As we know from the Bible, God will judge us according to what we know of him (see Luke 12:48). We will not be held accountable for what we do not know. But this is not to say that the person who has not heard of Jesus has never known of him. No matter where we live on God’s earth, all of us were born with a soul, an emptiness, a sense that life should have meaning and purpose. Despite that spiritual longing, many have disregarded God and his Word. But if we are genuinely seeking God, he will reveal himself to us. We find proof of this in Acts 10:1-48. A man named Cornelius, a religious man who constantly prayed to God, asked the Lord to reveal himself. Although Cornelius may have heard of Jesus Christ, he did not know God’s plan for salvation. God answered his prayer by sending the apostle Peter to preach the gospel to him. When Cornelius heard that wonderful message, he believed it! The Bible tells us that God is unchanging (see Malachi 3:6; James 1:17). He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. If he heard Cornelius’ prayer, he would listen to the prayers of all those who do not know him but desire to. It’s also important to note that sometimes those who ask this question are not those who have never heard the gospel as they are trying to put up a smokescreen to keep us from showing them their need for God. We might remind them that God is loving and compassionate and that he will deal fairly and justly with those who have never heard the gospel. But those who do know the truth of the gospel will be held accountable.