:: Download the 2.23.2014 Worship Study Guide & Sermon Notes
:: Download the 2.23.2014 Bulletin
:: Download the 2.23.2014 Parent Bulletin
:: Listen to the 2.23.2014 Sermon Audio
image :: Love Letters, Stanley Spencer (1950, British)
Preparation for Worship :: Speaking the Truth in Love
“We desire truth and find in ourselves nothing but uncertainty.
We seek happiness and find only wretchedness and death.
We are incapable of not desiring truth and happiness,
and incapable of either certainty or happiness.” (Blaise Pascal)
“I change, He changes not, the Christ can never die;
His Love, not mine, the resting-place, His Truth, not mine, the tie.” (Horatius Bonar)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Feb 23
:: Crown Him With Many Crowns (Matthew Bridges, 1851) chart // audio
:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1674) chart // audio
:: He is Lord (Traditional American, 20th century) chart // audio
:: The Christian’s Hope Can Never Fail (Gadsby Hymnal, 1838) chart // audio
:: Jesus, the Lord My Savior Is (Gadsby Hymnal, 1838) chart // audio
:: O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing (Charles Wesley, 1739) chart // audio
Call to Worship :: Psalm 86:8-12
There is none like You among the gods, O Lord, nor are there any works like Yours. All the nations You have made shall come and worship before You, O Lord, and shall glorify Your name. For You are great and do wondrous things; You alone are God. Teach me Your way, O Lord, that I may walk in Your truth; unite my heart to fear Your name. I give thanks to You, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify Your name forever.
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 45:18-19, 22-25
For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it (he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited!): “I am the Lord, and there is no other. I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right…Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’ Only in the Lord, it shall be said of me, are righteousness and strength; to him shall come and be ashamed all who were incensed against him. In the Lord all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.”
Sermon :: Ephesians 4:11-16
11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.
We Confess Our Sin Together
Heavenly Father, all Your lovingkindness is in Your Son, I bring Him to You in the arms of faith, I urge His saving name as the One who died for me, I plead His blood to pay for my debts of wrong. Accept His worthiness for my unworthiness, His sinlessness for my transgression, His purity for my uncleanness, His sincerity for my guile, His truth for my deceits, His meekness for my pride, His constancy for my backslidings, His love for my enmity, His fullness for my emptiness, His faithfulness for my treachery, His obedience for my lawlessness, His glory for my shame, His devotedness for my waywardness, His holy life for my unchaste ways, His righteousness for my dead works, His death for my life. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: II Corinthians 5:21
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.