240818 – Worship Bulletin

He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Colossians 1:13

Prelude: “Where Thou Leadest Me”

Welcome and Announcements

The Voluntary for Silent Prayer

*Call to Worship: Psalm 116:1-13

Minister: I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

People: The snares of death encompassed me…I suffered distress and anguish. Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”

Minister: Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.

People: When I was brought low, he saved me. Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Minister: For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling; I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living….

People: What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me?

Unison: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.

*Hymn of Adoration: “Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners” (No. 498)

1 Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! lover of my soul;
friends may fail me, foes assail me,
he, my Savior, makes me whole.

Refrain:
Hallelujah! what a Savior!
Hallelujah, what a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
he is with me to the end.

2 Jesus! what a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in him;
tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
he, my strength, my vict'ry wins. [Refrain]

3 Jesus! what a help in sorrow!
While the billows o'er me roll,
even when my heart is breaking,
he, my comfort, helps my soul. [Refrain]

4 Jesus! what a guide and keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
storms about me, night o'ertakes me,
he, my pilot, hears my cry. [Refrain]

5 Jesus! I do now receive him,
more than all in him I find;
he hath granted me forgiveness,
I am his, and he is mine. [Refrain]

*Prayer of Adoration and Congregational Prayer

Unison: Creator and Redeemer God, author of all existence, source of all blessedness, I adore you for making me capable of knowing you, for giving me reason and conscience, for leading me to desire you. I praise you for the revelation of yourself in the gospel, for your heart as a dwelling place of pity, for your thoughts of peace towards me, for your patience and your graciousness, for the vastness of your mercy. You have taught me how the guilty can be pardoned, the unholy sanctified, and the poor enriched. May I be always amongst those who not only hear you but know you, who walk with you and rejoice in you, who take you at your word and find life there. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.

From “A Present Salvation” in The Valley of Vision

*Affirmation of Faith: Heidelberg Catechism 29

Minister: Why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is, Savior?

People: Because he saves us from all our sins, and because salvation is not to be sought or found in anyone else.

Unison: To the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

*Gloria (Tune: “Lauda Anima”)

Glory be to him who loved us, washed us from each spot and stain;
Glory be to him who bought us, made us kings with him to reign!
Glory, honor, power, blessing to the Lamb that once was slain!

Psalter Reading: Psalm 40:1-11

Minister: I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.

People: He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Minister: He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God.

People: Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

Minister: Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not look to the proud, to those who turn aside to false gods.

People: Many, O Lord my God, are the wonders you have done.

Minister: The things you planned for us no one can recount to you;

People: were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

Minister: Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but my ears you have pierced;

People: burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not require.

Minister: Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—it is written about me in the scroll.

People: ‘I desire to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.’”

Minister: I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; I do not seal my lips, as you know, O Lord.

People: I do not hide your righteousness in my heart; I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.

Minister: I do not conceal your love and your truth from the great assembly.

People: Do not withhold your mercy from me, O Lord; may your love and your truth always protect me.

Hymn of Approach: “My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less” (No. 521)

1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand;
all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]

3 His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]

4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found;
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]

The Prayers of Intercession

Unison: Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Minister: Father, we pray for your people throughout the world; for our denomination; for this church; and for all ministers and missionaries. We pray especially for the Mahands in England, the Lees with RUF, and the Mugaris in Zimbabwe, and Mike Osborne with Standing Stone.

People: We pray for the leaders of our nation and all who hold authority, that they would govern according to your truth, and especially that they would resolve to protect the lives of the unborn and defenseless.

Minister: We pray for the world, especially that you would bring peace and justice and deliverance to nations and peoples oppressed by war, by disaster, by tyranny, and by evil. We pray for our brothers and sisters in these places as they offer the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ amid great danger and opposition.

People: We pray for our children and future generations which will be born to them. May the knowledge of you, Lord, fill the earth through them.

Minister: May we have grace to glorify Christ in our own day.

Unison: Lord, hear our prayers.

Pastoral Prayer

Words of Encouragement

Minister: I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. (Psalm 34:4-6)

People: Bless the LORD, O, my soul and all that is within me bless His Holy name!

*Hymn of Thanksgiving: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” (Insert)

1 Beneath the cross of Jesus
I find a place to stand,
And wonder at such mercy
That calls me as I am.
For hands that should discard me
Hold wounds which tell me come.
Beneath the cross of Jesus
My unworthy soul is won.

2 Beneath the cross of Jesus,
His family is my own.
Once strangers chasing selfish dreams;
Now, one through grace alone.
How could I now dishonor
The ones that You have loved?
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
See the children called by God.

3 Beneath the cross of Jesus
The path before the crown,
We follow in His footsteps
Where promised hope is found.
How great the joy before us
To be His perfect bride.
Beneath the cross of Jesus,
We will gladly live our lives.

CCLI 3036374

Worship of God through Tithes and Offerings

*Doxology (Tune: “Old Hundredth”)

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host:
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Amen

*Prayer of Thanksgiving and Dedication

*Reading of The Holy Scriptures: Ephesians 2:1-10

Minister: This is the Word of God.

Unison: Thanks be to God for his Word!

*The Prayer for Illumination

Sermon: “A Glorious Contrast” (Rev. Kevin Gardner)

*Hymn of Response: “It Is Well with My Soul” (No. 691)

1 When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
when sorrows like sea billows roll;
whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
"It is well, it is well with my soul."

Refrain:
It is well with my soul;
it is well, it is well with my soul.

2 Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
let this blest assurance control,
that Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
and has shed his own blood for my soul. [Refrain]

3 My sin– O the bliss of this glorious thought!–
my sin, not in part, but the whole,
is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more;
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul! [Refrain]

4 O Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend;
"Even so"– it is well with my soul. [Refrain]

*The Benediction

Postlude

*Denotes congregational standing, if able.