:: Download the 8.31.2014 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 8.31.2014 Worship Bulletin
:: Download the 8.31.2014 Parent Bulletin
:: Download the 8.31.2014 Sermon Audio
Preparation for Worship :: Lament and Complaint
“Lament is a cry of belief in a good God, a God who has His ear to our hearts . . . Complaint is the bitter howl of unbelief.” (Ann Voskamp)
“Let the one who is thirsty come.” (Revelation 22:17)
Call to Worship :: Isaiah 55:1-3, 6
Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Listen diligently to Me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to Me;
hear, that your soul may live.
Seek the Lord while He may be found;
call upon Him while He is near.
Ministry of Prayer :: Psalm 22:1-11, 14-15, 23-24, 27-28; Psalm 86:1 refrain
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?
O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer,
and by night, but I find no rest.
Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
In you our fathers trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
To you they cried and were rescued;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame. [Refrain]
But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by mankind and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they make mouths at me; they wag their heads;
“He trusts in the Lord; let him deliver him;
let him rescue him, for he delights in him!”
Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother’s breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth,
and from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
Be not far from me,
for trouble is near,
and there is none to help. [Refrain]
I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws; [Refrain]
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,
and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
For he has not despised or abhorred
the affliction of the afflicted,
and he has not hidden his face from him,
but has heard, when he cried to him. [Refrain]
All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations. [Refrain]
Sermon :: Psalm 42-43
42 As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?[b]
3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
4 These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation6 and my God.
My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar.
7 Deep calls to deep
at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
have gone over me.
8 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.
9 I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?”
10 As with a deadly wound in my bones,
my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”
11 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
43 Vindicate me, O God, and defend my cause
against an ungodly people,
from the deceitful and unjust man
deliver me!
2 For you are the God in whom I take refuge;
why have you rejected me?
Why do I go about mourning
because of the oppression of the enemy?
3 Send out your light and your truth;
let them lead me;
let them bring me to your holy hill
and to your dwelling!
4 Then I will go to the altar of God,
to God my exceeding joy,
and I will praise you with the lyre,
O God, my God.
5 Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.
We Confess Our Sin Together :: Adapted from The Valley of Vision, “The Deeps”
Lord Jesus, give me a deeper repentance,
a horror of sin, a dread of its approach;
Help me diligently to flee it, and jealously
to resolve that my heart shall be Yours alone.
Give me a deeper trust,
that I may lose myself to find myself in You,
The Ground of my rest, the Spring of my being.
Give me a deeper knowledge of Yourself
as Savior, Master, Lord, and King.
Give me deeper power in private prayer,
more sweetness in Your Word,
more steadfast grip on its truth.
Give me deeper holiness in speech, thought,
action, and let me not seek moral goodness apart from You.
I have no master but You, no law but Your will,
No delight but Yourself, no wealth but what You give,
No good but what You bless, no peace but what You bestow.
I am nothing but what You make me,
I have nothing but what I receive from You,
I can be nothing unless your grace covers me.
Work deep in my heart dear Lord,
and then fill me to overflowing with Living Water.
Words of Encouragement and New Testament Reading :: John 7:37-38
Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”