:: Download the 7.6.2014 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 7.6.2014 Worship Bulletin
:: Download the 7.6.2014 Parent Bulletin
:: Download the 7.6.2014 Sermon Audio
image :: Untitled, Jean-Pierre Ruel (2010, French)
Preparation for Worship :: That It May Go Well With You
“Jesus is a fountain containing all good, and flowing with streams of richest, choicest blessings. Nothing can be needed, but Jesus has it…Here we may drink and enjoy immortal health. Here we may live and find every needful good…Why then should we live smarting under the wounds of sin, or groaning beneath its load? Behold, the living, the open Fountain — wash and be clean, drink and be refreshed. Why should we complain of spiritual need, or groan in indigence and poverty? Let us go to Jesus. His immortal fullness contains all we can need, and He bids us come and take freely. Come, then, and supply all your needs; come, drink and forget your poverty, and remember your misery no more.” (James Smith)
Call to Worship :: Psalm 145:1-4,13
I will extol You, my God and King, and bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend Your works to another, and shall declare Your mighty acts. Your Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and Your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 49:8-9,25
This is what the Lord says: “In the time of My favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’…” This is what the Lord says: “Yes, captives will be taken from warriors, and plunder retrieved from the fierce; I will contend with those who contend with you, and your children I will save.”
Sermon :: Ephesians 5:32-6:4
32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
We Confess Our Sin Together :: from Martin Bucer’s Strasbourg Liturgy (1539), based on the 10 Commandments of Exodus 20:1-17
Almighty, eternal, merciful God and Father, we confess that we have sinned against You and Your commandments: We confess that we have not believed in You, our one God and Father, but have put our faith and trust more in creature than in You, our God and Creator. We confess that we have erected idols in our hearts, and bowed down and served them. We confess that we have misused Your Name, that we have sworn falsely or lightly by it, and have not professed it or kept it holy as we ought. We confess that we have not kept the Sabbath holy, nor have we rejoiced in the work of six days but have grumbled against Your day and been negligent in our work. We confess that we have not honored our parents, and have been disobedient to them and to all those to whom we owe honor and obedience. We confess that we have not respected life, but have murdered in our hearts, venting our anger against our neighbors whom we are to love. We confess that we have been unchaste; we acknowledge all our sins of the flesh and all the excess and extravagance of our whole lives in eating, drinking, clothing and things, and our intemperance in our thinking, seeing, hearing, and speaking. We confess that we have stolen. We acknowledge our greed. We admit our love of the world and the things of the world; we have dishonestly gained and kept what we have, and greedily held what belongs to others. We confess that we have borne false witness, that we have been untrue and unfaithful toward our neighbor, and that we have shaded, twisted, and denied the truth. We confess that we have coveted the possessions and spouses of others; we acknowledge our sin and transgression of Your holy commands and inclination toward all evil. Heavenly Father, graciously forgive us these and all our sins, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, our Savior. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: Psalm 103:8, 10-12
The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.