:: Download the 3.9.2014 Worship Study Guide & Sermon Notes
:: Download the 3.9.2014 Bulletin
:: Download the 3.9.2014 Parent Bulletin
:: Download the 3.9.2014 Sermon Audio
Note: We are experiencing technical difficulties with the audio on our website. The sermon audio will play on Apple devices (e.g. iPads, iPhones), but it isn’t playing properly on PCs. We appreciate your patience while we work to resolve this issue.
image :: Waterscape, Emil Nolde (20th century, German)
Preparation for Worship :: Be Renewed
Our lusts for security, of course, are tutored as well as spontaneous. Powerful and persuasive people woo and intimidate us that we might trust or fear them. In convincing us of our false trusts and acknowledging the potency of the pressures on us, the Scriptures again offer us the liberating alternative of knowing the Lord. (David Powlison)
There dwells upon this earth a mysterious Being, whose office is to renew the fallen and restore the wandering. We cannot see Him or hear Him, yet He dwells in some of us as Lord of our nature. His chosen residence is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. (Charles Spurgeon)
Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs for March 9
:: Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners! (John Wilbur Chapman, 1910) chart // audio
:: O Come and Mourn With Me Awhile (Frederick William Faber, 1849) chart // audio
:: Give Me Jesus (African-American Spiritual) chart // audio
:: Grace Upon Grace (Sandra McCracken, 2005) chart
:: Grace Greater Than Our Sin (Julia H. Johnston, 1911) chart // audio
Call to Worship :: Psalm 103:1-5, 22
Bless the Lord, O my soul; all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits, Who forgives all your iniquity, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, Who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Bless the Lord, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul!
Old Testament Reading :: I Samuel 8:1-9
When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, “Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them.”
Sermon :: Ephesians 4:17-24
17 Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
We Confess Our Sin Together :: Psalm 51:1-12
Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love; according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Words of Encouragement :: Titus 3:4-6
But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.