Liturgy for June 25, 2023
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Reflections
Wrong views about holiness are generally traceable to wrong views about human corruption… Dim or indistinct views of sin are the origin of most of the errors, heresies, and false doctrines of the present day. If man does not realize the dangerous nature of his soul’s disease, you cannot wonder if he is content with false or imperfect remedies.
J.C. Ryle
from Holiness
See where before the throne He stands, And pours the all-prevailing prayer, Points to His side, and lifts His hands, And shows that I am graven there.
He ever lives for me to pray: He prays that I with Him may reign: Amen to what my Lord doth say! Jesus, Thou canst not pray in vain.
Charles Wesley
The only real life of the Christian is his resurrection life in and with Christ.
Henry Alford
To be a Christian means to have Christ possess you. We usually think of possession as a negative word. That’s because if anything else possesses you, it’ll drive you crazy. But if Christ possesses you, he’ll drive you absolutely sane.
Timothy J. Keller
Call to Worship
Based on Ephesians 3:18-19
Leader: O God, by your power may we, with all the saints,
People: comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with your fullness.
Leader: Amen! Come, and worship Him!
Hymn of Praise: O God beyond All Praising
Prayer of Praise and the Lord’s Prayer
Confession of Sin
Scripture Reading
Daniel 9:4-9
I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession, saying, “O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rule. We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you. To us, O LORD, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him.
Corporate Confession of Sin
All: Merciful, most gracious Father,
We are embarrassed and ashamed to come before you. We have rebelled against your wisdom. We have preferred the ways of the world to your ways. Our actions and our very thoughts have been evil and apart from the righteousness to which you have called us. We have rejected your guidance and we have found ourselves troubled, confused, and in despair.
Father most gracious, filled with mercy and steadfast love, hear our prayers of repentance. Hear us when we confess and pour out our sorrows before you. Hear us and forgive us, not because of anything we have done, not even for our anguished prayers. Our only call for forgiveness is through the work of Jesus, our Savior, our hope and the only mediator of the covenant of grace under which we stand. Forgive us for we pray in His name. Amen
Assurance of Pardon and the Peace of God
Romans 5:8-9
God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
Leader: Since God has forgiven us in Christ, let us forgive one another. The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
People: And also with you.
Silent Confession and Reflection
Hymn: Are You Weary, Are You Languid
Affirmation of Faith
The Nicene Creed
Leader: What do you believe about the Lord Jesus Christ?
People: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the 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 sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life; who proceeds from the Father and the Son; who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; and I look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Hymn: Gloria Patri
Prayer of Intercession
Hymn: By Grace I'm Saved, Grace Free and Boundless
Preaching of the Word
Reconciled to God -- Rev. Joel Gibson
Scripture: Ephesians 2:1-22
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Reconciled to God -- Sermon Points:
- We Were Dead (1-3)
- We Were Made Alive in Christ (4-10)
- We Are One in Christ (11-22)
The Sacrament of Communion
- Distribution of the Bread
- Prayer
- Distribution of Wine
- Prayer
The Giving of Peace
Pastor: May the peace of Christ be with you!
People: And also with you.
Hymn: I Know That My Redeemer Lives - Glory, Hallelujah!
Benediction
Ephesians 3:20-21
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. And God’s people said
All: Amen!