Sunday Service July 5, 2026  10:30 A.M 

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

Matthew 7 · chapter mention Matthew 7 · chapter mention

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

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

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.