:: Download the 4.2.2017 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 4.2.2017 Bulletin
:: Download the 4.2.2017 Sermon Audio
image :: Girl With A White Veil, Antonio Mancini (1876, Italian)
Preparation for Worship on April 2 2017 :: Faces
“Worship is a meeting at the center so that our lives are centered in God and not lived eccentrically. We worship so that we live in response to and from this center, the living God. Failure to worship consigns us to a life of spasms and jerks, at the mercy of every advertisement, every seduction, every siren. Without worship we live manipulated and manipulating lives. We move in either frightened panic or deluded lethargy as we are, in turn, alarmed by spectres and soothed by placebos. If there is no center, there is no circumference. People who do not worship are swept into a vast restlessness, epidemic in the world, with no steady direction and no sustaining purpose.” (Eugene Peterson)
“Look at Him… A friend of sinners!” (Luke 7:34)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for April 2 include ::
:: Behold Our God (Baird & Altrogge, 2011) CHART [bandcamp track=4160179747 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: May the Mind of Christ My Savior (Kate B. Wilkinson, 1925) CHART [bandcamp track=383595627 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Here, O My Lord (Horatius Bonar, 1855) CHART [bandcamp track=232759179 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Let Us Love And Sing And Wonder (John Newton, 1774) CHART [bandcamp track=3505470677 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: On Jordan’s Stormy Banks (Samuel Stennett, 1787) CHART [bandcamp track=1174694383 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]
:: Kyrie (Greene, 2017) CHART
Call to Worship :: Psalm 99:1-3,9
The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; He sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. Great is the Lord in Zion; He is exalted over all the nations. Let them praise Your great and awesome name— He is holy. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy.
Confession of Sin
Holy God, when You call us to follow You with great boldness, we tremble and cover our eyes. We are afraid of what we will see. Your greatness unveils our weakness, Your justice unveils our iniquity, and Your holiness unveils our stained hearts and minds. Lord Jesus Christ, Giver of all grace, forgive us our sins. Give us the strength to renounce that which hides You from us. . Lift our eyes to see the glory of God in the face of Christ. Give us the wisdom to trust Your atoning sacrifice. We believe; help our unbelief, that we might know the freedom and power of Your Cross.
Words of Encouragement :: from Colossians 2:13-15
When you were dead in your sins God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the Law that stood opposed to us; He took it away, nailing it to the Cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross.
Old Testament Reading :: Genesis 1:1-5
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Sermon :: II Corinthians 3:12-4:6
12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away.15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts.16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
1 Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. 3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.