Oct 5 2014 Worship Guide :: Like an Enemy | West End Presbyterian Church

Preparation for Worship :: Like an Enemy

“Jesus dies on the Cross, but not of the Cross. The Cross was the means by which He died, but not the reason why He died. He died through being crucified, but not because He was crucified. He was nailed to the tree, but that wasn’t the cause of His dying. The cause of His dying is precisely because He is there as the substitutionary atonement for the sins of His people. He dies bearing my sins in His body to that tree, so that I might live; so that through His condemnation at Calvary, the Judge in heaven will say to the sword of justice as it hangs over my head for my sins, ‘Do not slay my son. Jesus has been crucified. He has been put to death’; and I am now pardoned through His dying, justified by His blood, saved from the wrath to come.” (Iain D. Campbell)

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for October 5 include:

:: Father Long Before Creation (Chinese Hymn, c.1951) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2817376614 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=165182312]
:: Be Thou My Vision (8th Century Irish Hymn) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3401631397 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=3137703094]
:: None Other Lamb (Rossetti, b.1830) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=1038326589 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=798046000]
:: How Great Thou Art (Boberg, 1885) CHART [bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=3199896197 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=none track=424269682]

Call to Worship :: Daniel 6:26

He is the living God, enduring forever; His Kingdom shall never be destroyed, and His dominion shall be to the end.

Gospel Reading :: Luke 13:31-35

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to Him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless, I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following, for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

Praying the Psalms :: Psalm 74:1b-2, 3-5, 6-7, 20-21; Psalm 74:22a refrain

O God, why do you cast us off forever? Why does your anger smoke against the sheep of your pasture? Remember your congregation, which you have purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your heritage! Remember Mount Zion, where you have dwelt. [Arise, O God, defend Your cause.]

Direct your steps to the perpetual ruins; the enemy has destroyed everything in the sanctuary! Your foes have roared in the midst of your meeting place; they set up their own signs for signs. They were like those who swing axes in a forest of trees. [Arise, O God, defend Your cause.]

And all its carved wood they broke down with hatchets and hammers. They set your sanctuary on fire; they profaned the dwelling place of your name, bringing it down to the ground. [Arise, O God, defend Your cause.]

Have regard for the covenant, for the dark places of the land are full of the habitations of violence. Let not the downtrodden turn back in shame; let the poor and needy praise your name. [Arise, O God, defend Your cause.]

Confession of Sin

Our gracious Father, You sent Your Son to die and rise to new life in order that death might be brought to an end and that we, too, might live a new life. Yet we often chosen death over life. In our thoughts, words, and deeds we have rebelled against You and Your intentions for us. We have broken our fellowship with You, whose love is better than life and whom to know is life itself. We have sinned against others, sometimes unintentionally and sometimes deliberately, and have diminished their lives. We have invited Your wrath, who were created to reflect Your glory. Father, forgive us our sin for Jesus’ sake. And grant that the same Spirit that raised Christ might convict and renew us, that we might walk in Your ways, to the glory of Your holy name. Amen.

Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy upon us; upon us.

Words of Encouragement :: Colossians 2:13-14

You were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.

Sermon :: Lamentations 2:1-22

¹How the Lord in his anger
has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!
He has cast down from heaven to earth
the splendor of Israel;
he has not remembered his footstool
in the day of his anger.

²The Lord has swallowed up without mercy
all the habitations of Jacob;
in his wrath he has broken down
the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;
he has brought down to the ground in dishonor
the kingdom and its rulers.

³He has cut down in fierce anger
all the might of Israel;
he has withdrawn from them his right hand
in the face of the enemy;
he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,
consuming all around.

⁴He has bent his bow like an enemy,
with his right hand set like a foe;
and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes
in the tent of the daughter of Zion;
he has poured out his fury like fire.

⁵The Lord has become like an enemy;
he has swallowed up Israel;
he has swallowed up all its palaces;
he has laid in ruins its strongholds,
and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah
mourning and lamentation.

⁶He has laid waste his booth like a garden,
laid in ruins his meeting place;
the Lord has made Zion forget
festival and Sabbath,
and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

⁷The Lord has scorned his altar,
disowned his sanctuary;
he has delivered into the hand of the enemy
the walls of her palaces;
they raised a clamor in the house of the Lord
as on the day of festival.

⁸The Lord determined to lay in ruins
the wall of the daughter of Zion;
he stretched out the measuring line;
he did not restrain his hand from destroying;
he caused rampart and wall to lament;
they languished together.

⁹Her gates have sunk into the ground;
he has ruined and broken her bars;
her king and princes are among the nations;
the law is no more,
and her prophets find
no vision from the Lord.

¹⁰The elders of the daughter of Zion
sit on the ground in silence;
they have thrown dust on their heads
and put on sackcloth;
the young women of Jerusalem
have bowed their heads to the ground.

¹¹My eyes are spent with weeping;
my stomach churns;
my bile is poured out to the ground
because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,
because infants and babies faint
in the streets of the city.

¹²They cry to their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
as they faint like a wounded man
in the streets of the city,
as their life is poured out
on their mothers’ bosom.

¹³What can I say for you, to what compare you,
O daughter of Jerusalem?
What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,
O virgin daughter of Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea;
who can heal you?

¹⁴Your prophets have seen for you
false and deceptive visions;
they have not exposed your iniquity
to restore your fortunes,
but have seen for you oracles
that are false and misleading.

¹⁵All who pass along the way
clap their hands at you;
they hiss and wag their heads
at the daughter of Jerusalem:
“Is this the city that was called
the perfection of beauty,
the joy of all the earth?”

¹⁶All your enemies
rail against you;
they hiss, they gnash their teeth,
they cry: “We have swallowed her!
Ah, this is the day we longed for;
now we have it; we see it!”

¹⁷The Lord has done what he purposed;
he has carried out his word,
which he commanded long ago;
he has thrown down without pity;
he has made the enemy rejoice over you
and exalted the might of your foes.

¹⁸Their heart cried to the Lord.
O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears stream down like a torrent
day and night!
Give yourself no rest,
your eyes no respite!

¹⁹“Arise, cry out in the night,
at the beginning of the night watches!
Pour out your heart like water
before the presence of the Lord!
Lift your hands to him
for the lives of your children,
who faint for hunger
at the head of every street.”

²⁰Look, O Lord, and see!
With whom have you dealt thus?
Should women eat the fruit of their womb,
the children of their tender care?
Should priest and prophet be killed
in the sanctuary of the Lord?

²¹In the dust of the streets
lie the young and the old;
my young women and my young men
have fallen by the sword;
you have killed them in the day of your anger,
slaughtering without pity.

²²You summoned as if to a festival day
my terrors on every side,
and on the day of the anger of the Lord
no one escaped or survived;
those whom I held and raised
my enemy destroyed.