Preparing for Worship: Sixth Sunday before the Resurrection - March 4

God Calls Us to Worship Him

“Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.”

(Article V, “God’s Purpose in Grace” from The Baptist Faith and Message)

Hymn of Adoration: "I Stand in Awe"

You are beautiful beyond description
 

 
Too marvelous for words
 

 
Too wonderful for comprehension
 

 
Like nothing ever seen or heard
 

 
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom
 

 
Who can fathom the depth of Your love
 

 
You are beautiful beyond description
 

 
Majesty enthroned above
 

 

 
And I stand I stand in awe of You
 

 
I stand I stand in awe of You
 

 
Holy God to whom all praise is due
 

 
I stand in awe of You
 

 

 
You are beautiful beyond description
 

 
Yet God crushed You for my sin
 

 
In agony and deep affliction
 

 
Cut off that I might enter in

Who can grasp such tender compassion
 

 
Who can fathom this mercy so free

You are beautiful beyond description
 

 
Lamb of God who died for me

God Graciously Renews Us in Christ

Confession of Sin

Hymn of Confession: "Man of Sorrows, What a Name!"

Man of sorrows what a name
 

 
for the Son of God, who came
 

 
ruined sinners to reclaim:
 

 
Hallelujah, what a Savior

Forgiveness of Sin through Christ

Hymn of Assurance: "In Christ Alone"

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

Word of Assurance

May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!
 

 
(Psalm 67:1-3)

Thanking God for What He Has Done

Prayer of Thanksgiving

Giving of Tithes and Offerings

Approximately 11% of our church budget goes to outward ministries of evangelism and mission. This covers both local and international ministries from Indian ministries to missionaries overseas. These monies also allow church members to be apart of short mission trips. Your generous giving allows the gospel to go out beyond the walls of our church building.

Hymn of Petition: "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing"

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'm come
 

 
And I hope by Thy good pleasure
 

 
Safely to arrive at home
 

 
Jesus sought me when a stranger
 

 
Wand'ring 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 grace Lord 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 Lord take and seal it
 

 
Seal it for Thy courts above

God Instructs Us through His Word

Genesis 46-47

God Feeds Us and Nourishes Us through His Supper

We unite in teaching all men to confess the one and only Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. This selfsame one is perfect both in deity and in humanness; this selfsame one is also actually God and actually man, with a rational soul and a body. He is of the same reality as God as far as his deity is concerned and of the same reality as we ourselves as far as his humanness is concerned; thus like us in all respects, sin only excepted. Before time began he was begotten of the Father, in respect of his deity, and now in these "last days," for us and behalf of our salvation, this selfsame one was born of Mary the virgin, who is God-bearer in respect of his humanness.
 

 

 
We also teach that we apprehend this one and only Christ-Son, Lord, only-begotten -- in two natures; and we do this without confusing the two natures, without transmuting one nature into the other, without dividing them into two separate categories, without contrasting them according to area or function. The distinctiveness of each nature is not nullified by the union. Instead, the "properties" of each nature are conserved and both natures concur in one "person" and in one reality. They are not divided or cut into two persons, but are together the one and only and only-begotten Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Thus have the prophets of old testified; thus the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us; thus the Symbol of Fathers has handed down to us.

(excerpt from the Chalcedonian Creed)

God Blesses Us and Send Us Out

“Go and let us enjoy all that pertains to our salvation.”
 

 
(Gregory of Antioch, “On the Holy Theophany”)

    0