Guide for Home Worship

July 12, 2020

Welcome

Thank you so much for joining us! The following page will take you through the order of worship for this Sunday.

If you are new, welcome! We also want to invite you to learn more about us. You can do so by selecting the button below.
A few tips for parents:
  • Plan for your time – read through the guide and prepare the room where you are gathering
  • Make your time joyful – have fun!!!
  • Remember, it’s primarily about a relationship, not a task to scratch off
  • Have your kids participate in age and maturity appropriate ways – reading, singing, etc.
  • We also have a special Children’s Lesson for this week. You can watch the video here.

Time of Reflection

“Too many Christians are doctrinally malnourished so that any bacteria or virus of heresy that comes their way wreaks havoc in their lives.”
~Conrad Mbewe, Zambian pastor and educator

“The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.”
~Samuel Rutherford (1600-1661), Scottish pastor, author and theologian

“Lament isn’t the opposite of praise. Lament is a path to praise…”
~Julius Kim, author, pastor and professor

“Heaven is not here, it’s There. If we were given all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for this world rather than the next. God is forever luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we will certainly find what we so keenly long for.”
~Elisabeth Elliot (1926-2015), author, speaker and missionary

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
~Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor

“Hope is…a requirement. Hopelessness is the enemy of justice. Injustice prevails where hopelessness persists.”
~Bryan Stevenson, lawyer and activist

“In the ancient church it was not unusual to memorize the [entire Psalter]…. In one of the eastern churches this was a prerequisite for the pastoral office. The church father St. Jerome says that one heard the Psalms being sung in the fields and gardens in his time. The Psalter impregnated the life of the early Christianity. Yet more important than all of this is the fact that Jesus died on the cross with words of the Psalter on his lips”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1909-1945), pastor and theologian, martyred by the Nazis

Opening Prayer

(select someone from your group to open your service in prayer)

Call to Worship

Romans 5:1-8 (ESV)

LEADER: Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

PEOPLE: Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

LEADER: Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character

PEOPLE: And character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Songs & Liturgy

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions)
COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING
(Robert Robinson & Asahel Nettleton, 1757)
Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above;
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Here I raise mine “Ebenezer”;
Hither by Thy help I come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure;
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wand’ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above.

Oh that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Full arrayed in blood-washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry
Bring Thy promises to pass
For I know Thy pow’r will keep me
Till I’m home with Thee at last.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
RESPONSIVE READING
Adapted from 1 Peter 1

LEADER: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

PEOPLE: According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

LEADER: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

ALL: Though we have not seen him, we love him. Though we do not now see him, we believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of our faith, the salvation of your souls.
BE STILL MY SOUL
(Katharine von Schlegel 1697, Jason Ingram, Kari Jobe)
Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side:
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain:
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

In you I rest, in You I find my hope.
In you I trust, You never let me go.
I place my life within your hands alone
Be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be for ever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

In you I rest, in You I find my hope.
In you I trust, You never let me go.
I place my life within your hands alone
Be still, my soul.
©2013 Worship Together Music, Sony/ATV Timber Publishing, Open Hands Music CCLI #1791178

Prayer Time

(You may have an open time of prayer or select someone to pray)

  • Pray for our nation – that the good news of Jesus Christ would draw people to know God genuinely and personally.
  • Pray for those suffering from the ongoing spread of the coronavirus.
  • Pray for those experiencing racial injustices; specifically, that God would bring hope, reconciliation, and restoration through the good news of His Son.
  • Pray for those in authority at every level in our country, that they would govern wisely and justly.

Listen to Sermon

“Faith, Forgotten and Abandoned”
Psalm 13:1-6 (ESV)
preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Confession of Faith

The Apostles’ Creed (circa 5th Century)

LEADER: Christian, what do you believe?

PEOPLE: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell*. The third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic** church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

*i.e. suffered under the judgment of God for His people **i.e. “universal”

Sharing Time

(have everyone share one thing that struck them from the sermon)

Song

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions)
IN CHRIST ALONE
(Stuart Townend, Keith Getty)
In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My comforter, my all in all,
Here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! – who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness,
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground his body lay,
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as he stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His, and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from his hand,
Till he returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.
©2001 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) CCLI#1791178

Closing Prayer

(select someone to close your time in prayer)

Benediction

(The leader or individual should read this aloud relishing in the confident assertion that Christ has conquered.)

Luke 12:29-32

LEADER: Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

PEOPLE: Amen!