:: Download the 1.3.2016 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 1.3.2016 Bulletin
:: Download the 1.3.2016 Sermon Audio
image :: Rue Halevy Seen from the Sixth Floor, Gustave Caillebotte (1878, French)
Preparation for Worship :: Abstain as Sojourners
“One of the great ends of Christ’s appearing in the world was to proclaim liberty to everyone that would accept of it. He offers a most glorious freedom from the worst of servitudes and bondages. He opens the doors of the most filthy prisons and draws out of the most loathsome dungeons, redeems out of the worst captivity to a most cruel enemy, frees from the hardest drudgery and brings into a perfect and glorious liberty, even the liberty of the sons of God.” (Jonathan Edwards)
“You were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.” (Galatians 5:13)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Sunday January 3 include ::
:: Love’s Redeeming Work Is Done (Charles Wesley, 1739) CHART [bandcamp track=135949962 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Before the Throne of God Above (Charitie Lees Bancroft, 1863) CHART [bandcamp track=4120787669 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]:: Dearly We’re Bought (Joseph Hart, 1712-68) CHART [bandcamp track=1762495860 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]:: Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Thomas O. Chisholm, 1923) CHART [bandcamp track=3717975761 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
Call to Worship :: Isaiah 60:1-3
Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and His glory appears over you. Nations will come to Your light, and kings to the brightness of Your dawn.
Old Testament Reading :: Exodus 6:2-8
God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners. Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves, and I have remembered my covenant. Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. I will give it to you for a possession. I am the Lord.’”
Prayer of Confession :: John Wesley (1703-1791)
Forgive them all, O Lord; Our sins of omission and our sins of commission; The sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years; The sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies; Our secret and our more open sins; Our sins of ignorance and surprise, and our more deliberate and presumptuous sin; The sins we have done to please ourselves, and the sins we have done to please others; The sins we know and remember, and the sins we have forgotten; The sins we have striven to hide from others and the sins by which we have made others offend You; Forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for His sake, who died for our sins and rose for our justification, and now stands at Your right hand To make intercession for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
Words of Encouragement :: John 1:29
Behold, the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world!
Sermon :: I Peter 2:11-12
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.