:: Download the 1.25.2015 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 1.25.2015 Bulletin
:: Download the 1.25.2015 Parent Bulletin
:: Download the 1.25.2015 Sermon Audio
image :: The Yellow Curtain, Jean-Édouard Vuillard (1893, French)
Preparation for Worship :: Trouble & Providence
“God’s works of providence are, His most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures, and all their actions.” (Westminster Shorter Catechism)
“It is one thing to feel that God as our Maker supports us by His power, governs us by His providence, nourishes us by His goodness, and attends us with all sorts of blessings — and another thing to embrace the grace of reconciliation offered to us in Christ.” (John Calvin)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for January 25 include:
:: King of Saints (Joseph Hart, d.1768) CHART [bandcamp track=3854459982 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: Give Me Jesus (African-American Spiritual) CHART [bandcamp track=893825801 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: The House of God Forever/ Psalm 23 (Foreman, 2008) CHART [bandcamp track=2683274072 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: I Need Thee Every Hour (Annie Hawks, 1872) CHART [bandcamp track=110765075 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: How Great Thou Art (Carl Boberg, 1885) CHART [bandcamp track=3696795088 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
Call to Worship :: from I Chronicles 29
Praise be to You, O Lord, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor. For everything in heaven and earth is Yours. Yours, O Lord, is the Kingdom; You are exalted as head over all. Wealth and honor come from You; You are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give You thanks, and praise Your glorious name.
New Testament Reading :: Hebrews 12:24,28-29
You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
Sermon :: I Kings 18:1-19
After many days the word of the Lord came to Elijah, in the third year, saying, “Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth.” 2 So Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria. 3 And Ahab called Obadiah, who was over the household. (Now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly, 4 and when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah took a hundred prophets and hid them by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water.) 5 And Ahab said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs of water and to all the valleys. Perhaps we may find grass and save the horses and mules alive, and not lose some of the animals.” 6 So they divided the land between them to pass through it. Ahab went in one direction by himself, and Obadiah went in another direction by himself.
7 And as Obadiah was on the way, behold, Elijah met him. And Obadiah recognized him and fell on his face and said, “Is it you, my lord Elijah?” 8 And he answered him, “It is I. Go, tell your lord, ‘Behold, Elijah is here.’” 9 And he said, “How have I sinned, that you would give your servant into the hand of Ahab, to kill me? 10 As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. And when they would say, ‘He is not here,’ he would take an oath of the kingdom or nation, that they had not found you. 11 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here.”’ 12 And as soon as I have gone from you, the Spirit of the Lord will carry you I know not where. And so, when I come and tell Ahab and he cannot find you, he will kill me, although I your servant have feared the Lord from my youth. 13 Has it not been told my lord what I did when Jezebel killed the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred men of the Lord’s prophets by fifties in a cave and fed them with bread and water? 14 And now you say, ‘Go, tell your lord, “Behold, Elijah is here”’; and he will kill me.” 15 And Elijah said, “As the Lord of hosts lives, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself to him today.” 16 So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him. And Ahab went to meet Elijah.
17 When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” 18 And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. 19 Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”
Prayer of Confession
Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14-15)
Almighty and merciful Father, You created us for fellowship with Yourself and one another; But, we rebelled, and made enemies of our Maker and each other. We have despised Your providence, doubted Your love, and become a law unto ourselves. We believed that human wrath would work the righteousness of God, and so have taken matters into our own hands. We are thankful that Your mercy is higher than the heavens, wider than our wanderings, and deeper than all of our sins. Grant us repentance and faith in Jesus Christ that we may desire what is good, love all that You love, and gladly follow where You lead. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: Daniel 9:9,18
The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against Him… We do not make requests of You because we are righteous, but because of Your great mercy.