:: Download the 4.23.2017 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 4.23.2017 Bulletin
:: Download the 4.23.2017 Sermon Audio
image :: Inside A Tent In The Canadian Rockies, John Singer Sargent (1916, American)
Preparation for Worship on April 23 2017 :: Good Courage
“All people should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” (James Thurber)
“The day may come when after a long fight with disease we shall feel that medicine can do no more, and that nothing remains but to die. Friends will be standing by, unable to help us. Hearing, eyesight, even the power of praying, will be fast failing us. The world and its shadows will be melting beneath our feet. Eternity, with its realities, will be looming large before our minds. What shall support us in that trying hour? What shall enable us to feel, ‘I fear no evil’ (Psalm 23:4)? Nothing, nothing can do it but close communion with Christ. Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith,—Christ putting His right arm under our heads,—Christ felt to be sitting by our side,—Christ can alone give us the complete victory in the last struggle… He lives who said, ‘O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I will be thy destruction’ (Hosea 13:14). He lives who will one day change our vile body, and make it like unto His glorious body.” (J.C. Ryle)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for April 23 include ::
:: All Creatures of Our God and King (Francis of Assisi, 1225) CHART [bandcamp track=3110760989 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone) (Newton, 1779; Tomlin & Giglio, 2006) CHART [bandcamp track=3958547232 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: None Other Lamb (Christina Rossetti, b.1830) CHART [bandcamp track=798046000 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Rock of Ages, When the Day Seems Long (Sandra McCracken, 2005) CHART [bandcamp track=3793832028 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Sovereign Grace O’er Sin Abounding (John Kent, b.1766) CHART
Call to Worship :: Psalm 2:7-8,11-12
I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten You. Ask of me, and I will make the nations Your heritage, and the ends of the earth Your possession.” Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
Confession of Sin :: based on “Love Shines at Calvary” from The Valley of Vision
Almighty God, You grace removes my burdens and heaps them on Your Son, made a transgressor, a curse, and sin for me; Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy, cast off that I might be brought in, trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend, surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best, stripped that I might be clothed, wounded that I might be healed, thirsty that I might drink, tormented that I might be comforted, made a shame that I might inherit glory, experienced reproach that I might receive welcome, closed His eyes in death that I might forever live. O Father, who did not spare Your only Son that You might spare me, All this Your love designed and accomplished: Help me to adore You with my words and my life, Go forth, O conquering God, and show me the Cross, mighty to subdue, comfort and save. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: Colossians 1:21-22
You, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him.
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 25:1-9
O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you; I will praise your name,
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the foreigners’ palace is a city no more;
it will never be rebuilt.
Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
For you have been a stronghold to the poor,
a stronghold to the needy in his distress,
a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat;
for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall,
like heat in a dry place.
You subdue the noise of the foreigners;
as heat by the shade of a cloud,
so the song of the ruthless is put down.
On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,
of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.
And he will swallow up on this mountain
the covering that is cast over all peoples,
the veil that is spread over all nations.
He will swallow up death forever;
and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,
and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
It will be said on that day,
“Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for him;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”
Sermon :: II Corinthians 5:1-10
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.