Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Call to Worship
From Psalm 8:1, 3-6, 9 (CSB17)
LORD, our Lord,
how magnificent is your name throughout the earth!
You have covered the heavens with your majesty.
When I observe your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you set in place,
what is a human being that you remember him,
a son of man that you look after him?
You made him little less than God
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet.
LORD, our Lord,
how magnificent is you name throughout the earth!
Our Sung Call to Worship
All Things Good
Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Confession
Based on Heidelberg Catechism
Questions 3 & 4
What does God’s law require of us?
Christ teaches us this in Matthew 22:
Love the Lord you God
with all your heart
and with all your soul
and with all your mind.
This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it:
Love your neighbor as yourself.
All the Law and the Prophets
hang on these two commandments.
Can you keep all this perfectly?
No. I am inclined by nature
to hate God and my neighbor.
TIME OF SILENT CONFESSION
Our Sung Confession
All Gone
Assurance and Peace
We profess our assurance of salvation and peace in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Remember the Gospel
From Colossians 1:19-22 (CSB17) and
Psalm 102:18-22(ESV)
Hear the Good News!
For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him,
and through him to reconcile everything to himself,
whether things on earth or things in heaven,
by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds
expressed in your evil actions.
But now he has reconciled you
by his physical body through his death,
to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him.
Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
so that a people yet to be created may praise the LORD:
that he looked down from his holy height;
from heaven the LORD looked at the earth,
to hear the groans of the prisoners,
to set free those who were doomed to die,
that they may declare in Zion the name of the LORD,
and in Jerusalem his praise,
when peoples gather together,
and kingdoms, to worship the LORD.
Our Sung Profession of Assurance
We Will Feast in The House of Zion
Thanksgiving and Petition
We Give Thanks in Prayer and Offer Petitions to God
We express our gratitude to God our Father for Christ’s work on the cross for us and bring our requests before him. In bringing our requests, we confess that we believe God truly is a good father, who cares about our needs and gives us what he knows is best.
We Give Thanks by Giving
We give financial offerings to support the work of the church because of our gratitude to God. By giving we confess we are trusting in God’s provision for us as well.
On the first Sunday of each month we have two offerings—one for the general fund and a second one for the benevolence ministry of our church.
We Give Thanks in Song
On Jordan’s Stormy Banks
Scripture Reading
Luke 3:1-22 (ESV)
1 In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius
Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his
brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Ituraea
and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of
Abilene, 2 during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness. 3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 4 As it is written in the book of the words of Isaiah the prophet,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled,
and every mountain and hill shall be made low,
and the crooked shall become straight,
and the rough places shall become level ways,
6 and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.’”
7 He said therefore to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?8 Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”
10 And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” 11 And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” 12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” 13 And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to
do.”14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”
15 As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ, 16 John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 So with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother’s wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, 20 added this to them all, that he locked up John in prison.
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Sermon
Luke 3:1-38 “Jesus is the Son of God” – Pastor Michael Felkins
Sending
Having heard and confessed the Gospel, we are sent into the world on mission in Christ, which we express in both song and spoken word.
Sending Song
Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery
Blessing
Hebrews 13:20-21 (CSB17)
Now may the God of peace,
who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus—
the great Shepherd of the sheep—
through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
equip you with everything good to do his will,
working in us what is pleasing in his sight,
through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever.
Amen.