Download: Readings and Song Lyrics for September 15, 2024
Pre-service Song
Jesus What A Friend for Sinners
Jesus! What a Friend for sinners!
Jesus! Lover of my soul;
Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
He, my Savior, makes me whole.
Chorus
Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Hallelujah! What a Friend!
Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
He is with me to the end.
Jesus! What a strength in weakness!
Let me hide myself in Him.
Tempted, tried, and sometimes failing,
He, my strength, my vict’ry wins. (Chorus)
Jesus! What a help in sorrow!
While the billows o’er me roll.
Even when my heart is breaking,
He, my comfort, helps my soul. (Chorus)
Jesus, what a guide and keeper!
While the tempest still is high,
Storms about me, night o’er takes me,
He, my pilot, hears my cry. (Chorus)
Jesus! I do now receive Him,
More than all in Him I find.
He hath granted me forgiveness
I am His, and He is mine. (Chorus)
Words by John Wilbur Chapman, Music by Rowland Hugh Pritchard
©Public Domain
Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Call to Worship
Psalm 46:1-3, 8-11 (ESV)
God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear
though the earth gives way,
though the mountains be moved
into the heart of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble at its swelling.
Come, behold the works of the Lord,
how he has brought desolations on the earth.
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth,
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the chariots with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God.
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth!”
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Our Sung Call to Worship
The Goodness of Jesus
Come you weary hearts now to Jesus.
Come you anxious soul now and see
There is perfect love and comfort in your tears.
Rest here in His wondrous peace.
Chorus
Oh the goodness, the goodness of Jesus,
Satisfied He is all that I need.
May it be, come what may,
that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus.
Come find what this world cannot offer.
Come and find your joy here complete.
Taste the living water, never thirst again,
Rest here in His wondrous peace. (Chorus)
Come and find your hope now in Jesus.
He is all He said He would be.
Grace is overflowing from the Savior’s heart.
Rest here in His wondrous peace. (Chorus)
May it be, come what may,
that I rest all my days in the goodness of Jesus.
By Fioan Aghajanian, Harrison Druery, Michael Farren, Jaywan Mawell, Jonny Robinson, Rich Thompson
© 2018 CityAlight Music; Farren Love And War Publishing; Integrity’s Alleluia! Music
Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Confession
Romans 7:18-25 (ESV)
For I know that nothing good dwells in me,
that is, in my flesh.
For I have the desire to do what is right,
but not the ability to carry it out.
For I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it,
but sin that dwells within me.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right,
evil lies close at hand.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
but I see in my members another law waging war
against the law of my mindand making me captive
to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
Wretched man that I am!
Who can deliver me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind,
but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
Time of silent confession.
Our Sung Confession
Not What My Hands Have Done
Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.
Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.
I praise the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
My Lord has saved my life and freely pardon gives;
I love because He first loved me, I live because He lives.
Words by Horatius Bonar, Music by George Walter Martin
©Public Domain
Assurance and Peace
We profess our assurance of salvation and peace in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Remember the Gospel
Heidelberg Catechism, Question 1
Remember the Gospel!
What is your only comfort in life and death?
That I am not my own,
but belong with body and soul
both in life and in death,
to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ.
He has fully paid for all my sins
with his precious blood,
and has set me free
from all the power of the devil.
He also preserves me in such a way
that without the will of my heavenly Father
not a hair can fall from my head;
indeed, all things must work together
for my salvation.
Therefore, by his Holy Spirit,
he also assures me of eternal life
and makes me heartily willing and ready
from now on to live for him.
Our Sung Profession of Assurance
Christ Our Hope in Life and Death
What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone.
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to him belong.
Who holds our days within his hand?
What comes, apart from his command?
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand.
Chorus
O sing hallelujah!
Our hope springs eternal;
O sing hallelujah!
Now and ever we confess
Christ our hope in life and death.
What truth can calm the troubled soul?
God is good, God is good.
Where is his grace and goodness known?
In our great Redeemer’s blood.
Who holds our faith when fears arise?
Who stands above the stormy trial?
Who sends the waves that bring us nigh
Unto the shore, the rock of Christ? (Chorus)
Unto the grave, what will we sing?
“Christ, he lives! Christ, he lives!”
And what reward will heaven bring?
Everlasting life with him.
There we will rise to meet the Lord,
Then sin and death will be destroyed,
And we will feast in endless joy,
When Christ is ours forevermore. (Chorus)
By Keith Getty, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Papa, Matt Boswell, and Matthew Merker
© 2020 Getty Music Hymns and Songs; Getty Music Publishing; Jordan Kauflin Music; Love Your Enemies Publishing; Matthew Merker Music; Messenger Hymns
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.
You may give electronically at gabcames.org/giving/ or place your offering in the boxes at the back of the sanctuary or send a check in the mail.
Scripture Reading
Matthew 22:1-14 (CSB)
1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables:
2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4 Again, he sent out other
servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.
8 “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11 When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
This is the word of the Lord.
The grass withers and the flower falls
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Sermon
Matthew 22:1-14 (CSB) – The Parable of the Wedding Banquet – Eric Schumacher
Sermon Discipleship Questions
1. What encouraged you?
2. What convicted you?
3. Is there anything in your life that needs to change?
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
Just As I Am
Just as I am, without one plea,
But that Thy blood was shed for me,
And that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
Just as I am, and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot,
To Thee Whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come! (Chorus)
Chorus
I come broken to be mended, I come wounded to be healed.
I come desp’rate to be rescued, I come empty to be filled.
I come guilty to be pardoned by the blood of Christ the Lamb.
And I’m welcomed with open arms, praise God, just as I am.
Just as I am, I would be lost,
But mercy and grace my freedom bought.
And now to glory in Your cross,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come! (Chorus)
Praise God just as I am.
By Charlotte Elliott, Travis Cottrell, Sue C. Smith and David Moffitt, Music by William Bradbury, Travis Cottrell, Sue C. Smith and David Moffitt
© 2009 CCTB Music; First Hand Revelation Music; Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing
Blessing
2 Peter 3:18 (CSB)
Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
To him be the glory both now and
to the day of eternity.
Scripture text for next Sunday: Matthew 22:15-22