:: Download the 12.6.2015 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 12.6.2015 Bulletin
:: Download the 12.6.2015 Sermon Audio
image :: Annunciation, Paolo Veronese (1558, Italian)
Preparation for Worship :: God is Faithful
“Christ calls us brethren and is one of us. How should we be encouraged when we have such a Mediator! ‘Tis one of us that is to plead for us, one that God from love to us has received into His own person from among us.” (Jonathan Edwards)
“God travels wonderful ways with human beings, but He does not comply with the views and opinions of people. God does not go the way that people want to prescribe for Him…Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that He takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in.” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Sunday December 6 include ::
:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Gloria (Luke 2:14) CHART [bandcamp track=3705156614 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Charles Wesley, 1744) CHART [bandcamp track=1664620326 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Latin antiphons, 12th century) CHART [bandcamp track=134275884 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: What Child Is This (W. Chatterton Dix, c.1865) CHART [bandcamp track=3999560521 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: None Other Lamb (Christina Rossetti, b.1830) CHART [bandcamp track=798046000 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: In Christ Alone (Getty & Townend, 2002) CHART [bandcamp track=676321818 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: O Come All Ye Faithful (attr. John Francis Wade, 1743) CHART [bandcamp track=1923573538 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Our Lord, Come (I Corinthians 16:22; Revelation 22:20) CHART
Call to Worship on the Second Sunday of Advent :: Luke 21:28
Stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 64:1-4
Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You! For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.
Prayer of Confession :: 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; that we may delight in Your will, and walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your Name. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: Hebrews 9:28
Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for Him.
Sermon :: Acts 3:22-26
22 ”Moses said, ‘The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. 23 And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people.’ 24 And all the prophets who have spoken, from Samuel and those who came after him, also proclaimed these days. 25 You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ 26 God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.”