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::: Listen to the 3.24.2013 Sermon
image :: Expulsion of the Money Changers, Stanley Spencer (British,1921)
Preparation for Worship ::: Save
I am tangled up in contradiction.
I am strangled by my own two hands.
I am hunted by the hounds of addiction.
I have lied to everyone who trusts me.
I have tried to fall when I could stand.
I have only loved the ones who loves me.
O Hosanna!
See the long awaited king come to set his people free.
We cry, O Hosanna!
Come and tear the temple down.
Raise it up on holy ground.
Andrew Peterson
Call to Worship: Zechariah 9:9-10,16-17
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
His rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.
On that day the LORD their God will save them, as the flock of His people; for like the jewels of a crown they shall shine on His land.
For how great is His goodness, and how great His beauty!
Song of Adoration ::: O Worship The King (Robert Grant, 1833)
Song of Praise ::: All Glory, Laud and Honor (Theodulf of Orléans, c.820) [bandcamp track=236522930 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
Sermon: Mark 11:1-33
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. 5 And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. 7 And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8 And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. 9 And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”
11 And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.
12 On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. 13 And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. 14 And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.
15 And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 16 And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. 17 And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” 18 And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. 19 And when evening came they went out of the city.
20 As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. 21 And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” 22 And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. 23 Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
27 And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, 28 and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” 29 Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 30 Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” 31 And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 32 But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. 33 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Song of Response ::: Did Christ Over Sinners Weep (B. Beddome, 1799) [bandcamp track=3528043466 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
We Confess Our Sin Together
King of Glory, You came to us as true Peace in the midst of our warfare, as true Freedom to release us from our bondage to sin, as true Refuge while we languished in a chaos of our own design. Though we know Jesus as Sovereign King, we have rebelled just as Israel did long ago, we have negotiated with the Enemy by our secret sins and proud skepticism, we have betrayed our Heavenly Father in our daily refusal of Peace, Freedom, and Refuge. For our treason, You died; For our restoration, You rose again. Draw us close to You in this week, that our eyes may catch the vision of Your tears, and our hearts, the wonder of Your grace.
Words of Encouragement: from Psalm 118
In my anguish I cried to the Lord; and He answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me. The Lord is my Strength and my Song; He has become my Salvation.
Song of Praise ::: Upon a Life I Did Not Live (Horatius Bonar, 1881) [bandcamp track=196705242 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]
Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 45:21-25
Declare what is to be, present it—
let them take counsel together.
Who foretold this long ago,
who declared it from the distant past?
Was it not I, the Lord?
And there is no God apart from me,
a righteous God and a Savior;
there is none but me.
“Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
my mouth has uttered in all integrity
a word that will not be revoked:
Before me every knee will bow;
by me every tongue will swear.
They will say of me, ‘In the Lord alone
are deliverance and strength.’”
All who have raged against him
will come to him and be put to shame.
But all the descendants of Israel
will find deliverance in the Lord
and will make their boast in him.