Aug 23 2015 Worship Recap :: Elect Exiles

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::  Download the August 23 2015 Bulletin
::  Download the 8.23.2015 Sermon Audio 

Earth, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1984, American)image :: Earth, Jean-Michel Basquiat (1984, American)

Preparation for Worship :: Elect Exiles

“The church exists today as resident aliens… a colony of heaven.”  (Stanley Hauerwas)

“He spares not His Son, but sends Him in quest of the exiles. He comes into the land of banishment, lies in an exile’s cradle, becomes a banished man for them, lives a banished life, endures an exile’s shame, dies an exile’s death, is buried in an exile’s tomb. He takes our place of banishment that we may take His place of honor and glory in the home of His Father and our Father. Such is the exchange between the exile and the exile’s divine substitute.”  (Horatius Bonar)

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Sunday August 23 include ::

:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: All Creatures of Our God and King (Francis of Assisi, 1225) CHART [bandcamp track=3110760989 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Amazing Grace (John Newton, 1779) CHART [bandcamp track=2203479634 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Gloria Patri (2nd Century Hymn) CHART [bandcamp track=1717027862 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Come All Ye Pining, Hungry, Poor (Anne Steele, 19th cent.) CHART [bandcamp track=2538870965 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: The Church’s One Foundation (Samuel Stone, 1866) CHART [bandcamp track=4187815592 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: On Jordan’s Stormy Banks (Samuel Stennett, 1787) CHART [bandcamp track=1174694383 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Call to Worship :: Philippians 3:20-21

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.

Old Testament Reading :: Jeremiah 29:4-7,10

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare…. For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place.

Prayer of Confession

O Lord, no day of our lives passes that does not prove us guilty in Your sight. Our best services are filthy rags.  All things in us call for our rejection. However, all things in Christ plead our acceptance.  Grant us to hear Your voice assuring us that by Your stripes we are healed, that You were bruised for our iniquities, that You became sin for us, that we might be robed in Your righteousness. Grant that we might walk in newness of life as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Words of Encouragement :: I Peter 2:9-10

You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Sermon :: I Peter 1:1-2

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,

To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and for sprinkling with his blood:

May grace and peace be multiplied to you.