Readings for April 19, 2020
Elder Prayer for April 19, 2020
Sermon Manuscript for April 19, 2020
Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Call to Worship
Saints of Grand Avenue Baptist Church, what are we doing this morning?
We are turning our hearts to worship our God—
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit—
one God, who exists eternally, in three persons.
How do we worship this God?
We worship by confessing him to be our Creator and Redeemer.
How has God redeemed us?
He redeemed us through the person and work of Jesus Christ.
Where is Jesus Christ?
After he lived and died for our sins,
he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven,
where he sits at the right hand of the Father in glory.
Is our Redeemer with us?
He is separated from us in the flesh for a time,
and yet he is with us,
dwelling in our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
and will never leave or forsake us.
Where are we this morning?
We are separated from one another for a time,
and yet we are together,
seated with Christ in the heavenly places,
and united as one body in one Spirit—
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all.
Our Sung Call to Worship
The Church’s One Foundation
Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Confession
Reading from The Baptist Faith and Message (Article X).
What will be the end of this world?
God, in His own time and in His own way,
will bring the world to its appropriate end.
According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return
personally and visibly in glory to the earth;
the dead will be raised;
and Christ will judge all men in righteousness.
The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell,
the place of everlasting punishment.
The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies
will receive their reward
and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
Do we believe this?
We believe that Christ is risen, reigning, and returning,
yet like Thomas, we doubt,
we do not always live as though it is true.
We believe that Jesus Christ is our judge,
yet we live for the approval of mere mortals.
We believe there is a hell,
yet we do not grieve the lost state of our neighbors,
and we do not urgently seek their salvation.
We believe there is glorious resurrection coming to us,
yet we cling to the things of this world
and do not cherish the return of Jesus
as our blessed hope.
We believe, O Lord! Forgive and help our unbelief!
Time of silent confession.
Assurance and Peace
We profess our assurance of salvation and peace in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Remember the Gospel
Responsive reading (Heidelberg Catechism, Q/A 1)
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
Arise My Soul, Arise
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
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.
Elder Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you that by the life, death and resurrection of Jesus that we have been redeemed and empowered to be servants of the Lord our master. As your servants thank you for the providential care we have experienced from you in recent weeks during this pandemic. You are the perfect master who oversees all things that your servants suffer. Thank you that we are upheld by you as only you are able to make us to stand before you.
Thank you for the faith that you grant us to live and work together in your church. As we see in Romans 14, you grant us grace to welcome the weak in faith whether to partake or abstain, or whether to honor one day over another.
While we are unable to gather, impress upon us that even now none of us lives or dies to ourselves. Because you have bought us we live or die to the Lord. Thank you for dying and rising to live that you are Lord both of the living and the dead.
Father, as we contemplate our frailty and temporal physical existence remind us that we as a part of all flesh will stand before your judgment seat to give an account of ourselves to you. Thank you for the gifts of repentance and faith to bow our knee to you and confess with our tongue that you are Lord. Move among us as Lord by the power of your Spirit and do a great work today through the proclamation of your word to the glory of your name.
Amen.
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.
You may give electronically at here.
You may also send a check by mail.
We Give Thanks in Song
Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken
Scripture Reading
Hosea 12:7-13:8 (ESV)
7 A merchant, in whose hands are false balances,
he loves to oppress.
8 Ephraim has said, “Ah, but I am rich;
I have found wealth for myself;
in all my labors they cannot find in me iniquity or sin.”
9 I am the LORD your God
from the land of Egypt;
I will again make you dwell in tents,
as in the days of the appointed feast.
10 I spoke to the prophets;
it was I who multiplied visions,
and through the prophets gave parables.
11 If there is iniquity in Gilead,
they shall surely come to nothing:
in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;
their altars also are like stone heaps
on the furrows of the field.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram;
there Israel served for a wife,
and for a wife he guarded sheep.
13 By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt,
and by a prophet he was guarded.
14 Ephraim has given bitter provocation;
so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him
and will repay him for his disgraceful deeds.
13:1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2 And now they sin more and more,
and make for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
3 Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
or like the dew that goes early away,
like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or like smoke from a window.
4 But I am the LORD your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior.
5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
6 but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
7 So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8 I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
Sermon
Hosea 12:7-13:8 – Yahweh Indicts and Invites His People (Part 2) – Pastor Michael Felkins
Audio
Video
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
On Jordan’s Stormy Banks
Blessing
From 2 Thessalonians 3:5 (ESV)
May the Lord direct our hearts to the love of God
and to the steadfastness of Christ.