:: Download the 5.31.2015 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 5.31.2015 Bulletin
:: Download the 5.31.2015 Sermon Audio
image :: Moses Receiving the Tables of the Law (detail), Tintoretto (b.1518, Italian)
Preparation for Worship :: Dying Away & Coming to Life
“I do not at all understand the mystery of grace—only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us.” (Anne Lamott)
“To see the Law by Christ fulfilled,
And hear His pardoning voice;
Changes a slave into a child,
And duty into choice.” (William Cowper)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Sunday May 31 include ::
:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Be Thou My Vision (8th Century Irish Hymn) CHART [bandcamp track=3137703094 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: How Firm a Foundation (Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787) CHART [bandcamp track=1364970937 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: May the Mind of Christ My Savior (Kate B. Wilkinson, 1925) CHART [bandcamp track=383595627 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder (John Newton, 1774) CHART [bandcamp track=3505470677 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Jesus I Come (William Sleeper, 1887) CHART [bandcamp track=1190898373 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Gloria Patri (2nd Century Hymn) CHART [bandcamp track=3887420126 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
Call to Worship :: Psalm 118:28-29
You are my God, and I will praise You; You are my God, and I will exalt You. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever.
New Testament Reading :: II Corinthians 5:17
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Declaration of Faith :: The Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 88-91
What is involved in genuine repentance or conversion? Two things: the dying-away of the old self, and the rising-to-life of the new. What is the dying-away of the old self? To be genuinely sorry for sin and more and more to hate and run away from it. What is the rising-to-life of the new self? Wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a love and delight to live according to the will of God by doing every kind of good work. What are good works? Only those which are done out of true faith,conform to God’s law,and are done for God’s glory; and not those based on our own opinion or human tradition.
Prayer of Confession :: from The Book of Common Prayer
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of Your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us.
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.
Sermon :: Exodus 20:1-2
1 And God spoke all these words, saying, 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.”