:: Download the 4.30.2017 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 4.30.2017 Bulletin
:: Download the 4.30.2017 Sermon Audio
image :: Mt. Fuji, Umetaro Azechi (c.1940, Japanese)
Preparation for Worship on April 30 2017 :: The Love of Christ Controls Us
“What can strip the seeming beauty
From the idols of the earth?
Not a sense of right or duty,
But the sight of peerless Worth.
‘Tis that Look that melted Peter,
‘Tis that Face that Stephen saw,
‘Tis that Heart that wept with Mary,
Can alone from idols draw.” (Ora Rowan)
“Polly’s heart jumped in her body when she heard it. She felt sure that it was a call, and that anyone who heard that call would want to obey it and (what’s more) would be able to obey it, however many worlds and ages lay between.” (C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for April 30 include ::
:: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go (George Matheson, 1882) CHART [bandcamp track=3803477124 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: In Tenderness (W. Spencer Walton, 1894) CHART [bandcamp track=2809430029 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: In Christ Alone (Getty & Townend, 2002) CHART [bandcamp track=676321818 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross (Isaac Watts, 1707) CHART [bandcamp track=3207629541 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: O Come to the Altar (Elevation Worship, 2016) CHART [bandcamp track=22354601 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
Call to Worship :: Revelation 15:3-4; 1:5-7
Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the ages. Who will not fear You, O Lord, and bring glory to Your name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed. To Him Who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood and made us a kingdom of priests to His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him.
Confession of Sin :: based on Isaiah 30:15,18
Sovereign Lord, You said that in repentance and rest is our salvation, in quietness and trust is our strength, but we would have none of it. Yet You long to be gracious to us; You rise to show us compassion.
Words of Encouragement :: Romans 5:8
God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Old Testament Reading :: Psalm 29. A Psalm of David.
Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness.
The voice of the Lord is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders,
the Lord, over many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful;
the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
and Sirion like a young wild ox.
The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness;
the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
The voice of the Lord makes the deer give birth
and strips the forests bare,
and in his temple all cry, “Glory!”
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;
the Lord sits enthroned as king forever.
May the Lord give strength to his people!
May the Lord bless his people with peace!
Sermon :: II Corinthians 5:11-15
11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience.12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.