:: Download the 10.18.2015 Worship Study Guide and Sermon Notes
:: Download the 10.18.2015 Bulletin
:: Download the 10.18.2015 Sermon Audio
image :: Love-Hope, Yiannis Moralis (1934, Greek)
Preparation for Worship :: Set Your Hope
“Hope holds to Christ the mind’s own mirror out
To take His lovely likeness more and more…
Her glass is blest but she as good as blind
Holds till hand aches and wonders what is there.” (Gerard Manley Hopkins)
“The only hope… To be redeemed from fire by fire.” (T.S. Eliot)
Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs for Sunday October 11 include ::
:: Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing (Robert Robinson, 1758) CHART [bandcamp track=4015998502 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Doxology (Thomas Ken, 1709) CHART [bandcamp track=2257784892 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Holy, Holy, Holy (Reginald Heber,1826) CHART [bandcamp track=3071271614 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Jesus Whispers (Joseph Hart, 1759) CHART [bandcamp track=1346965301 bgcol=FFFFFF linkcol=4285BB size=short]:: Approach My Soul The Mercy Seat (John Newton, 1779) CHART
>>AUDIO
:: There’s A Wideness in God’s Mercy (Frederick Faber, 1862) CHART
:: God Is So Good (Traditional African) CHART
Call to Worship :: Psalm 77:11-15
I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember Your wonders of old. I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds. Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God? You are the God who works wonders; You have made known Your might among the peoples. With Your mighty arm You redeemed Your people.
Old Testament Reading :: Isaiah 6:1-7
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Prayer of Confession
Most merciful God, whose Son, Jesus Christ, was tempted in every way, yet was without sin, we confess before You our own sinfulness. We have hungered after that which does not satisfy; We have compromised with evil; We have doubted Your power to protect us; We have been obsessed with creating a life of constant pleasure; We have been indifferent to the treasure of heaven; We have neglected Your wise and gracious Law. Forgive our lack of faith; have mercy on our weakness. Restore in us such trust and love that we may walk in Your ways and delight in doing Your will. Amen.
Words of Encouragement :: I Peter 2:9-10
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Sermon :: I Peter 1:13-25
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, 23 since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; 24 for
“All flesh is like grass
and all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
and the flower falls,
25 but the word of the Lord remains forever.”
And this word is the good news that was preached to you.