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image ::  Zacharias and Elizabeth, Stanley Spencer (English, 1914)

Preparation for Worship on the Second Sunday of Advent :: Zechariah & Elizabeth, Righteous Waiting

“A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent.”

 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers from Prison

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for December 7 include:

::  Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing (Robert Robinson, 1758) [bandcamp track=4015998502 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
::  O Come, O Come Emmanuel (Latin antiphons, 12^th century) [bandcamp track=3332547118 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
::  Amen, Amen (Neil and Kate Robins, 2008) [bandcamp track=3980195636 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
::  Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence (Liturgy of St. James, 5^th century) [bandcamp track=3632738392 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
::  It Came Upon a Midnight Clear (Edmund H. Sears, 1849) [bandcamp track=958843212 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]

Call to Worship :: Isaiah 64:1-4

Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You! For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

Merciful God, who sent Your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Declaration of Faith :: The Nicene Creed, 325AD

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of his Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by Whom all things were made; Who for us and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the living and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son; Who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified; Who spoke by the prophets; and we believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Old Testament Reading  :: Deuteronomy 18:15

The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him.

Confession of Sin

Lord, You alone are full of grace and truth, but we have not kept watch for You. We have occupied ourselves with our own concerns. We have sought our own glory above Yours. We have not waited to find Your will for us. We have not noticed the needs of others around us. We have not acknowledged Your beauty and the love that You have shown us. Forgive us for our sins against You. Heavenly Father, help us to yield to the wisdom of Your ways; Lord Jesus, lead us to live in light of Your coming; Holy Spirit, give us faith to see that You are truly among us; Amen.

Words of Encouragement :: Zephaniah 3:14-15

Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The LORD has taken away the judgments against you, He has turned away your enemies. The King of Israel, the LORD, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more.

Sermon  :: Luke 1:5-25

⁵ In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. ⁶ And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. ⁷ But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years.

⁸ Now while he was serving as priest before God when his division was on duty, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him. ¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. ¹⁴ And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, ¹⁵ for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. ¹⁶ And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, ¹⁷ and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.”

¹⁸ And Zechariah said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years.” ¹⁹ And the angel answered him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. ²⁰ And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their time.” ²¹ And the people were waiting for Zechariah, and they were wondering at his delay in the temple. ²² And when he came out, he was unable to speak to them, and they realized that he had seen a vision in the temple. And he kept making signs to them and remained mute. ²³ And when his time of service was ended, he went to his home.

²⁴ After these days his wife Elizabeth conceived, and for five months she kept herself hidden, saying, ²⁵ “Thus the Lord has done for me in the days when he looked on me, to take away my reproach among people.”

::  Download the 11.30.2014 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
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image ::  Angel Appears to Joseph in a Dream, Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1645)

Preparation for Worship on the First Sunday of Advent :: Joseph, Waiting Interrupted

“We who must die demand a miracle.
How could the Eternal do a temporal act,
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible:
We who must die demand a miracle.”  (W.H. Auden)

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for November 30 include:

::  Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Charles Wesley, 1744) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3505305395 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=366056780]
::  Creator of The Stars of Night (7^th Century Latin Hymn) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2254475816 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=2507463581]
::  In The Bleak Midwinter (Christina Rossetti, c.1872) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3373596575 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=4215802200]
::  How Long, Oh Lord / Psalm 13 (Isaac Watts, 1719) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3240358148 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=231763990]
::  Veiled in Darkness Judah Lay (Douglas Rights, 1915) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3593495658 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=1487871416]
:: Let Me Find Thee (Joachim Neander, 1679) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2800896556 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=1585737294]

Call to Worship :: Malachi 3:1-2

“See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to His temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty. But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears?

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which Your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when He shall come again in His glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through Him who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Declaration of Faith ::  from the Belgic Confession (1561), Article 18

We profess that God fulfilled the promise that He had made to the early fathers by the mouth of His holy prophets when He sent His only and eternal Son into the world at the time set by Him. The Son took the “form of a servant” and was made in the “likeness of man,” truly assuming a real human nature, with all its weaknesses, except for sin; being conceived in the womb of the blessed virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. And He not only assumed human nature as far as the body is concerned but also a real human soul, in order that He might be a real human being. For since the soul had been lost as well as the body, He had to assume them both to save them both together. In this way He is truly our Immanuel— that is: “God with us.”

Old Testament Reading  :: Micah 5:2-5

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites. He will stand and in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And he will be our peace.

Confession of Sin

Lord God, every day we are reminded that we fall short of Your glory: You are strong; we are blown about by every whim. You call for justice; we play favorites and prefer man-made comfort. You are holy through and through; our best efforts are marred by sin and cannot save us. Oh how we need a Savior to ransom us from bondage to sin! Thank You for providing exactly what we need in Jesus. Oh how we need continued renewal in Your image!     Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to continue Your work in your Church. Forgive us our sins, and lead us to rest in Your grace. Amen.

Words of Encouragement :: based on Isaiah 40:1-2

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Your warfare is ended; Your sins are pardoned; The penalty for your rebellion is paid.

Sermon  :: Matthew 1:18-25

¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. ²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:

²³ “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”

(which means, God with us). ²⁴ When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, ²⁵ but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

::  Download the 11.23.2014 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
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image ::  Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Vincent van Gogh (French, 1889)

Preparation for Worship :: Have You Not Heard?

“The Bible is one long story of God meeting our rebellion with His rescue, our sin with His salvation, our guilt with His grace, our badness with His goodness. The overwhelming focus of the Bible is not the work of the redeemed but the work of the Redeemer.” (Tullian Tchividjian)

“Man is further distant from God, than man from nothing. What a wonder is it, that two natures infinitely distant, should be more intimately united than anything in the world…That a God upon a throne should be an infant in a cradle. That the thundering Creator be a weeping babe and a suffering man. These are such expressions of mighty power, as well as condescending love, that they astonish men upon earth, and angels in heaven.” (Stephen Charnock)

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for November 23 include:

::  Before the Throne of God Above [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2750090749 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=4120787669]
::  Behold Our God [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=427149551 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=4160179747]
:: How Firm a Foundation [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2872026018 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=1854230214]
:: Why So Heavy, O My Soul? [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=4275177237 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=3977207874]
:: Help My Unbelief [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2144117063 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=4060469677]

Call to Worship :: Romans 11:33-36

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!  How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways!  “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that He might be repaid?” For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.

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 5:9-11

Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

Mission Update  :: RvaChristmas.com

New Testament Reading :: II Corinthians 2:10,14-16

The Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God…The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

Sermon  :: Isaiah 40:12-31

¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
¹³ Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
¹⁴ Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
Who taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
¹⁵ Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted as the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust.
¹⁶ Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering.
¹⁷ All the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

¹⁸ To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness compare with him?
¹⁹ An idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
²⁰ He who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.

²¹ Do you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
²² It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;
who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
²³ who brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

²⁴ Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

²⁵ To whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
²⁶ Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
He who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name,
by the greatness of his might,
and because he is strong in power
not one is missing.

²⁷ Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the Lord,
and my right is disregarded by my God”?
²⁸ Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
his understanding is unsearchable.
²⁹ He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
³⁰ Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings like eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.

::  Download the 11.16.2014 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
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image ::  The Rescue, Honoré Daumier (French, b.1808)

Preparation for Worship :: The Cost of Comfort

“Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel—and God knew.”  (Exodus 2:23-25)

“Grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon His Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered Him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”  (Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for November 16 include:

::  From Depths of Woe / Psalm 130 (Martin Luther, 1524) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2800896556 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=762862813]
::  Praise to the Lord the Almighty (Joachim Neander, 1680) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3261847086 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=2701349241]
:: Let Me Find Thee (Joachim Neander, 1679) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2800896556 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=1585737294]
:: Be Thou My Vision (6th Century Irish Hymn) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3401631397 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=3137703094]
:: Jesus I am Resting Resting (Jean Sophia Pigott, 1876) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=4120016334 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=104008922]

Call to Worship :: Matthew 11:28-29

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Confession of Sin

Father in Heaven, forgive us for attempting to avoid You. We have fixed our eyes and hope on ourselves instead of worshiping You. We have settled for stressed-out busyness instead of trusting You. We have immersed ourselves in a carnival of distractions instead of resting in You. We have indulged in grumbling and complaining instead of crying out to You. We have labored in anxious isolation instead of joyfully entering into Your work in the world. Yet Your compassions yearn over us, Your heart hastens to our rescue, Your love endured our curse, Your mercy bore our justice. Forgive us all of our sin and renew our hearts. Turn us back to You.

Words of Encouragement :: Hebrews 4:15-16

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Gospel Reading :: Matthew 18:12-14

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?  And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray.   So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Sermon  ::  Isaiah 40:1-11

¹ Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand
double for all her sins.