THE LORD’S DAY
June 14, 2020
CALL TO WORSHIP (Read aloud)
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness;[a]
tremble before him, all the earth!
OPENING HYMN: “To God Be the Glory”
INVOCATION
Most holy and gracious Father, You have done such great things for me! How I rejoice in all that you are and all that you do! You have created all things and you are making all things new. Thank you for rescuing me; for delivering me from the domain of darkness and transferring me to the kingdom of your beloved Son. In him I have redemption, the forgiveness of my sin.
I confess my great weakness and desperate need for your grace. I pray that you would grant me greater understanding of your Word so that I might increase in my knowledge of you. Strengthen me with all power, according to your glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy. And help me to walk in a manner pleasing to you: bearing fruit in every good work.
Help me to know your presence with me right now, through the Holy Spirit you have given me. Receive my sacrifice of praise and make me to see Jesus and become more like him. I ask it all to the glory of your name. Amen.
GREATER GLORIA:
THE READING OF THE WORD: Romans 5:1-5 (Read aloud)
1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 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. 3Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 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.
ANTHEM: “O Love”
THE WORD SPEAKS TO OUR LIVES: Rejoicing in Suffering: Part 2 “Suffering Produces Endurance”
SONG OF RESPONSE:
(Click on the song title below and double click the back button to return to our page)
“Jesus is Mine”
TIME FOR PERSONAL PRAYER: How to Pray for Each Other
How do we respond when we hear of a brother or sister who is going through some affliction? Of course, we grieve and hurt with them. We seek to help them in any way we can. And we pray that the affliction, whatever it might be, might be relieved or come to an end. This is how we typically pray for one another. You see someone’s name on the prayer list and you pray that they will be healed or brought out of the difficulty.
Well we certainly wish this. But we have not prayed the most important prayer if it ends there. Some sort of final affliction will take us all from this world. Other afflictions will need to be born, sometimes for a very long time. The ultimate concern should not be getting rid of our afflictions, for they are inevitable. It is rather to be praying that God would use them in our lives. The greatest prayer you can pray for your brothers or sisters going through suffering, is that they would respond with faith and make good use of their hardship, allowing God to produce his beautiful fruit in them: to make them to be more like Christ – and to fill them with more hope in the glory of God and more rejoicing in this hope; Ask God to help the person to work through their particular suffering in such a way that they are brought to a place of rejoicing in it, knowing that God is using it for their good. This is how we should be praying for each other.
BLESSING:
And now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.