:::  Download the 6.23.2013 Heart Prep Guide

:::  Download the 6.23.2013 Bulletin

:::  Download the 6.23.2013 WepcKids Parent Bulletin

:::  Listen to the 6.23.2013 Sermon 

image  :: Woodcut Jonah in de Fish ’98, Peter Wortel

Preparation for Worship  :::  Jonah, God is Merciful

“Then only, when by sore distress compelled, I seek in God relief, O’erwhelmed with floods of wickedness,and swallowed up in gulfs of grief; Out of the deep my mournful prayer directing to the throne divine, And hoping against hope, I dare In hell to call the Saviour mine.” (Charles Wesley)

“The very contradictions in my life are in some ways signs of God’s mercy to me.” (Thomas Merton)

Call to Worship

God makes the sun rise and set. He is faithful from generation to generation. God makes summer and winter come and go. He is faithful from generation to generation. God helps plants grow and flowers bloom. He is faithful from generation to generation. God gives us food to eat, places to live, and people to love. He is faithful from generation to generation. God is always with us. He is faithful from generation to generation. God keeps his promises to us. He is faithful from generation to generation. Let us praise our faithful God.

Sermon  :::  Jonah 1:1-3, 15-17, 2:1-9, 3:9-4:4, 4:9-11

¹ Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, ²  “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, for their evil has come up before me.” ³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa and found a ship going to Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish, away from the presence of the Lord.

¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and hurled him into the sea, and the sea ceased from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly, and they offered a sacrifice to the Lord and made vows.

¹⁷ And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

¹ Then Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish, ²  saying,

“I called out to the Lord, out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice. ³ For you cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the flood surrounded me; all your waves and your billows passed over me. ⁴ Then I said, ‘I am driven away from your sight; yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.’ ⁵ The waters closed in over me to take my life; the deep surrounded me; weeds were wrapped about my head ⁶ at the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God. ⁷ When my life was fainting away, I remembered the Lord, and my prayer came to you, into your holy temple. ⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols forsake their hope of steadfast love. ⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you; what I have vowed I will pay. Salvation belongs to the LORD!”

⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰  When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.

¹ But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. ² And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. ³ Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” ⁴ And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”

⁹But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” ¹⁰ And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. ¹¹ And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

We Confess Our Sin Together  ::: from The 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  :::  Zephaniah 3:16b-17

Fear not, O Zion; let not your hands grow weak. The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.

New Testament Reading  :::  Matthew 12:38-42

³⁸ Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” ³⁹ But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰ For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. ⁴¹ The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. ⁴² The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.

Benediction

:::  Download the 6.16.2013 Heart Prep Guide

:::  Download the 6.16.2013 Bulletin

:::  Download the 6.16.2013 WepcKids Parent Bulletin

:::  Listen to the 6.16.2013 Sermon

image  :: The Vision of the Prophet Obadiah, Marc Chagal (1956)

Preparation for Worship  :::  Obadiah, Standing

“Learn to praise Him and, despair­ing of your­self, say, ‘Lord Jesus, You are my righteous­ness, just as I am Your sin.  You have taken upon Your­self what is mine and have given to me what is Yours.  You have taken upon Your­self what You were not and have given to me what I was not.’  Beware of aspir­ing to such purity that you will not wish to be looked upon as a sin­ner, or to be one.  For Christ dwells only in sinners.” (Martin Luther)

Depth of Mercy (Charles Wesley, 1740) [bandcamp track=1100253496  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior (Fanny Crosby, 1868) [bandcamp track=1009889899  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Nothing But the Blood of Jesus (Robert Lowry,1876) [bandcamp track=2357154689  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Robert Robinson, 1758) [bandcamp track=4015998502  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=venti]

Leaning on the Everlasting Arms (Elisha Hoffman & Anthony Showalter, 1887) [bandcamp track=4223285600  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

All Creatures of Our God and King (Francis of Assisi, 1225) [bandcamp track=3110760989  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=grande]

Call to Worship ::: Isaiah 33:2,5-6

O Lord, be gracious to us; we wait for you. Be our arm every morning, our salvation in the time of trouble. The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. He will fill Zion with justice and righteousness, and he will be the stability of your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.

Sermon  :::  Obadiah 1:1-21

¹ The vision of Obadiah.

Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom:
We have heard a report from the Lord,
and a messenger has been sent among the nations:
“Rise up! Let us rise against her for battle!”
² Behold, I will make you small among the nations;
you shall be utterly despised.
³ The pride of your heart has deceived you,
you who live in the clefts of the rock,
in your lofty dwelling,
who say in your heart,
“Who will bring me down to the ground?”
⁴ Though you soar aloft like the eagle,
though your nest is set among the stars,
from there I will bring you down,
declares the Lord.

⁵ If thieves came to you,
if plunderers came by night—
how you have been destroyed!—
would they not steal only enough for themselves?
If grape gatherers came to you,
would they not leave gleanings?
⁶ How Esau has been pillaged,
his treasures sought out!
⁷ All your allies have driven you to your border;
those at peace with you have deceived you;
they have prevailed against you;
those who eat your bread have set a trap beneath you—
you have no understanding.

⁸ Will I not on that day, declares the Lord,
destroy the wise men out of Edom,
and understanding out of Mount Esau?
⁹ And your mighty men shall be dismayed, O Teman,
so that every man from Mount Esau will be cut off by slaughter.

¹⁰ Because of the violence done to your brother Jacob,
shame shall cover you,
and you shall be cut off forever.
¹¹ On the day that you stood aloof,
on the day that strangers carried off his wealth
and foreigners entered his gates
and cast lots for Jerusalem,
you were like one of them.
¹² But do not gloat over the day of your brother
in the day of his misfortune;
do not rejoice over the people of Judah
in the day of their ruin;
do not boast
in the day of distress.
¹³ Do not enter the gate of my people
in the day of their calamity;
do not gloat over his disaster
in the day of his calamity;
do not loot his wealth
in the day of his calamity.
¹⁴ Do not stand at the crossroads
to cut off his fugitives;
do not hand over his survivors
in the day of distress.

¹⁵ For the day of the Lord is near upon all the nations.
As you have done, it shall be done to you;
your deeds shall return on your own head.
¹⁶ For as you have drunk on my holy mountain,
so all the nations shall drink continually;
they shall drink and swallow,
and shall be as though they had never been.
¹⁷ But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape,
and it shall be holy,
and the house of Jacob shall possess their own possessions.
¹⁸ The house of Jacob shall be a fire,
and the house of Joseph a flame,
and the house of Esau stubble;
they shall burn them and consume them,
and there shall be no survivor for the house of Esau,
for the Lord has spoken.

¹⁹ Those of the Negeb shall possess Mount Esau,
and those of the Shephelah shall possess the land of the Philistines;
they shall possess the land of Ephraim and the land of Samaria,
and Benjamin shall possess Gilead.
²⁰ The exiles of this host of the people of Israel
shall possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath,
and the exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad
shall possess the cities of the Negeb.
²¹ Saviors shall go up to Mount Zion
to rule Mount Esau,
and the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.

We Confess Our Sin Together  :::  from The Valley of Vision, “Confession and Petition”

Holy Lord, we are guilty—of pride and unbelief, of failure to find Your mind in Your Word, of neglect to seek You in our daily lives. Our violations and shortcomings present our consciences with a long list of accusations, but they shall not stand!  For we lay them all now on Christ, our Sacrifice and Advocate. Lord, subdue our weaknesses and selfishness, granting us grace to live above them. Let us not be mastered by them, but have You rule over us in liberty and power. We praise and thank You for Your wisdom and love, for sometimes putting us into the furnace to refine our gold and remove our dross.  Deliver us from every evil habit, everything that dims the brightness of Your grace in us, everything that prevents us from taking our deepest delight in You. Amen.

Words of Encouragement  :::  Romans 5:1-2

Since have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

New Testament Reading  :::  Luke 18:9-14

 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ But the tax collector stood at a distance.  He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Benediction

:::  Download the 6.9.2013 Heart Prep Guide & Sermon Notes

:::  Download the 6.9.2013 Bulletin

:::  Download the 6.9.2013 WepcKids Parent Bulletin

:::  Listen to the 6.9.2013 Sermon 

image  ::  Plumb Line, Pat Calonne (2013)

Arise O God and Shine (William Hurn, 1815) [bandcamp track=2605083989  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Did Christ Over Sinners Weep (Benjamin Beddome, 1787) [bandcamp track=3528043466  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Psalm 130 / From the Depths of Woe (Martin Luther, 1524) [bandcamp track=762862813  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Jesus Whispers (Joseph Hart, 1759) [bandcamp track=1346965301  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Let Me Be (Aaron Senseman, 2006) Let Me Be

To Thee I Come (Samuel Medley, 18th century) [bandcamp track=3009654777  bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=0687f5 size=venti]

Preparation for Worship  :::  Amos, Does God Care?

“Nothing is more common than for men to make partial and absurd distinctions between vices of equal enormity, and to observe some of the divine commands with great scrupulousness, while they violate others, equally important, without any concern, or the least apparent consciousness of guilt.” (Samuel Johnson)

“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?  My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?” (Janis Joplin, Michael McClure & Bob Neuwirth)

Call to Worship ::: from Isaiah 35

Be strong, and do not fear! Your God will come to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf be unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Then will the wilderness rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice and shout for joy. And we, the ransomed of the Lord, will enter with singing. Everlasting joy will crown our heads. Open your eyes and see now the glory of the Lord, and the splendor of our God.

Mission Update :: WEPC Neighborhood Outreach

Sermon  :::  Amos 1:1-2; 2:6-11; 5:1-7; 9:9-15

¹ The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

² And he said:

“The Lord roars from Zion
and utters his voice from Jerusalem;
the pastures of the shepherds mourn,
and the top of Carmel withers.”               (Amos 1:1-2)

⁶ Thus says the Lord:

“For three transgressions of Israel,
and for four, I will not revoke the punishment,
because they sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals—
⁷ those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth
and turn aside the way of the afflicted;
a man and his father go in to the same girl,
so that my holy name is profaned;
⁸ they lay themselves down beside every altar
on garments taken in pledge,
and in the house of their God they drink
the wine of those who have been fined.

⁹ “Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them,
whose height was like the height of the cedars
and who was as strong as the oaks;
I destroyed his fruit above
and his roots beneath.
¹⁰ Also it was I who brought you up out of the land of Egypt
and led you forty years in the wilderness,
to possess the land of the Amorite.
¹¹ And I raised up some of your sons for prophets,
and some of your young men for Nazirites.
Is it not indeed so, O people of Israel?”
declares the Lord.      (Amos 2:6-11)

¹ Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

² “Fallen, no more to rise,
is the virgin Israel;
forsaken on her land,
with none to raise her up.”

³ For thus says the Lord God:

“The city that went out a thousand
shall have a hundred left,
and that which went out a hundred
shall have ten left
to the house of Israel.”

⁴ For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:

“Seek me and live;
⁵     but do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beersheba;
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.”

⁶ Seek the Lord and live,
lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph,
and it devour, with none to quench it for Bethel,
⁷ O you who turn justice to wormwood
and cast down righteousness to the earth!      (Amos 5:1-7)

⁹ “For behold, I will command,
and shake the house of Israel among all the nations
as one shakes with a sieve,
but no pebble shall fall to the earth.
¹⁰ All the sinners of my people shall die by the sword,
who say, ‘Disaster shall not overtake or meet us.’

¹¹ “In that day I will raise up
the booth of David that is fallen
and repair its breaches,
and raise up its ruins
and rebuild it as in the days of old,
¹² that they may possess the remnant of Edom
and all the nations who are called by my name,”
declares the Lord who does this.

¹³ “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when the plowman shall overtake the reaper
and the treader of grapes him who sows the seed;
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
and all the hills shall flow with it.
¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel,
and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine,
and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit.
¹⁵ I will plant them on their land,
and they shall never again be uprooted
out of the land that I have given them,”
says the Lord your God.      (Amos 9:9-15)

We Confess Our Sin Together

O Lord, we have not longed for Your coming nor for Your Kingdom. We have not denied ourselves, taking up Your Cross, following You. Instead, clinging to the things of this world and counting them dear, We have grown callous to the needs of the poor, the lonely and the suffering. We have not cried out for justice nor cared about those who are without Christ and without hope in this world. Lord, forgive us for our sins against You and grant that by the power of Your Spirit, we might live in light of Your coming again.

Words of Encouragement  :::  II Corinthians 8:9

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.

New Testament Reading  :::  Romans 8:18-21

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.  For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope  that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Benediction