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Download: Readings and Song Lyrics for May 2
Reflection
Little children, guard yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21
Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Call to Worship
From Revelation 5:12-13 (CSB)
Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered
to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing!
Blessing and honor and glory and power
be to the one seated on the throne,
and to the Lamb, forever and ever!
Our Sung Call to Worship
Come, People of the Risen King
Verse 1
Come, people of the Risen King,
who delight to bring Him praise.
Come all, and tune your hearts to sing
to the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
we will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
to gather children in. (Chorus)
Chorus
Rejoice, rejoice,
let ev’ry tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice;
O, Church of Christ, rejoice!
Verse 2
Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
and those weeping through the night.
Come those who tell of battles won,
and those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
and His mercies never cease;
But follow us through all our days,
with the certain hope of peace. (Chorus)
Verse 3
Come young and old from ev’ry land,
men and women of the faith.
Come those with full or empty hands,
find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world His people sing;
shore to shore we hear them call
The truth that cries through ev’ry age,
“Our God is all in all.” (Chorus 2X’s)
Words and Music by Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty and Stuart Townend
© 2007 Thankyou Music
Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Confession
Lord, we confess that we have not
kept watch over our own souls.
We grow proud and confident,
trusting in our strength to keep us;
thinking that we stand firm,
we fall into temptation and sin.
Lord, we confess that we have not
kept watch over one another’s souls.
We are happy to see the sin of our brother
and gossip about it in our homes,
but we fail to love him enough
to go and gently restore him.
We are so consumed with our own lives
and the drama of the world’s headlines;
that we give no thought to our sister’s life
and the temptations that plague her.
Forgive us, Lord, and keep us from idols.
Time of silent confession.
Our Sung Confession
Psalm 121
Verse 1
I lift my eyes up to the hills,
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord,
Maker of heaven and earth.
Pre Chorus
He will not let your feet slip,
His right hand never leaves you
He who keeps you never slumbers nor sleeps.
Chorus
He watches over you,
Like a shade from the sun by day and the moon by night
He watches over you,
No evil can ever invade the covering of Yahweh.
(Repeat Verse 1, Pre Chorus and Chorus)
Bridge
When you go out, when you come in, He watches over You.
Today and forevermore, He never leaves You.
(Chorus)
Words and Music by Shane Heilman
© Angry Monkey Publishing
Assurance and Peace
We profess our assurance of salvation and peace in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Remember the Gospel & The Lord’s Supper
Based on Ephesians 2:12–16 (ESV), The Apostles’ Creed (circa 2nd century AD), 1 Corinthians 11:23-25
You were once separated from Christ,
having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off
have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace, who has made us one,
reconciling us all to God in one body through the cross.
I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
Born of the virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead and buried.
On the third day, He rose again from the dead.
He ascended to heaven,
And sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
The holy universal church,
The communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
The resurrection of the body,
And the life everlasting.
Amen.
On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread,
and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said,
“This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, and said,
“This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.”
Our Sung Profession of Assurance
Be Thou My Vision
Verse 1
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art:
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Verse 2
Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord:
Thou my great Father, and I Thy true son,
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Verse 3
Riches I heed not, or man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.
Verse 4
High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’n’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
Ending
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
Words by Mary E. Byrne & Eleanor H. Hull
Music: Traditional Irish Melody
Public Domain
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.
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
Joshua 22:1-34 (CSB)
1Joshua summoned the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh 2 and told them, “You have done everything Moses the LORD’s servant commanded you and have obeyed me in everything I commanded you. 3 You have not deserted your brothers even once this whole time but have carried out the requirement of the command of the LORD your God. 4 Now that he has given your brothers rest, just as he promised them, return to your homes in your own land that Moses the LORD’s servant gave you across the Jordan. 5 Only carefully obey the command and instruction that Moses the LORD’s servant gave you: to love the LORD your God, walk in all his ways, keep his commands, be loyal to him, and serve him with all your heart and all your soul.”
6 Joshua blessed them and sent them on their way, and they went to their homes. 7 Moses had given territory to half the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, but Joshua had given territory to the other half, with their brothers, on the west side of the Jordan. When Joshua sent them to their homes and blessed them, 8 he said, “Return to your homes with great wealth: a huge number of cattle, and silver, gold, bronze, iron, and a large quantity of clothing. Share the spoil of your enemies with your brothers.”
9 The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh left the Israelites at Shiloh in the land of Canaan to return to their own land of Gilead, which they took possession of according to the LORD’s command through Moses. 10 When they came to the region of the Jordan in the land of Canaan, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh built a large, impressive altar there by the Jordan.
11 Then the Israelites heard it said, “Look, the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh have built an altar on the frontier of the land of Canaan at the region of the Jordan, on the Israelite side.” 12 When the Israelites heard this, the entire Israelite community assembled at Shiloh to go to war against them.
13 The Israelites sent Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead. 14 They sent ten leaders with him—one family leader for each tribe of Israel. All of them were heads of their ancestral families among the clans of Israel. 15 They went to the Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh, in the land of Gilead, and told them, 16 “This is what the LORD’s entire community says: ‘What is this treachery you have committed today against the God of Israel by turning away from the LORD and building an altar for yourselves, so that you are in rebellion against the LORD today?
17 Wasn’t the iniquity of Peor, which brought a plague on the LORD’s community, enough for us? We have not cleansed ourselves from it even to this day, 18 and now would you turn away from the LORD? If you rebel against the LORD today, tomorrow he will be angry with the entire community of Israel. 19 But if the land you possess is defiled, cross over to the land the LORD possesses where the LORD’s tabernacle stands, and take possession of it among us. But don’t rebel against the LORD or against us by building for yourselves an altar other than the altar of the LORD our God. 20 Wasn’t Achan son of Zerah unfaithful regarding what was set apart for destruction, bringing wrath on the entire community of Israel? He was not the only one who perished because of his iniquity.’”
21 The Reubenites, Gadites, and half the tribe of Manasseh answered the heads of the Israelite clans, 22 “The Mighty One, God, the LORD! The Mighty One, God, the LORD! He knows, and may Israel also know. Do not spare us today, if it was in rebellion or treachery against the LORD 23 that we have built for ourselves an altar to turn away from him. May the LORD himself hold us accountable if we intended to offer burnt offerings and grain offerings on it, or to sacrifice fellowship offerings on it. 24 We actually did this from a specific concern that in the future your descendants might say to our descendants, ‘What relationship do you have with the LORD, the God of Israel? 25 For the LORD has made the Jordan a border between us and you descendants of Reuben and Gad. You have no share in the LORD!’ So your descendants may cause our descendants to stop fearing the LORD.
26 “Therefore we said: Let’s take action and build an altar for ourselves, but not for burnt offering or sacrifice.
27 Instead, it is to be a witness between us and you, and between the generations after us, so that we may carry out the worship of the LORD in his presence with our burnt offerings, sacrifices, and fellowship offerings. Then in the future, your descendants will not be able to say to our descendants, ‘You have no share in the LORD!’ 28 We thought that if they said this to us or to our generations in the future, we would reply: Look at the replica of the LORD’s altar that our ancestors made, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you. 29 We would never ever rebel against the LORD or turn away from him today by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the LORD our God, which is in front of his tabernacle.”
30 When the priest Phinehas and the community leaders, the heads of Israel’s clans who were with him, heard what the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh had to say, they were pleased. 31 Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest said to the descendants of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh, “Today we know that the LORD is among us, because you have not committed this treachery against him. As a result, you have rescued the Israelites from the LORD’s power.”
32 Then the priest Phinehas son of Eleazar and the leaders returned from the Reubenites and Gadites in the land of Gilead to the Israelites in the land of Canaan and brought back a report to them. 33 The Israelites were pleased with the report, and they blessed God. They spoke no more about going to war against them to ravage the land where the Reubenites and Gadites lived. 34 So the Reubenites and Gadites named the altar: It is a witness between us that the LORD is God.
This the Word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God!
Sermon
Joshua 22:1-34 – The Communion of Saints – Pastor 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.
Blessing
Based on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, 23 (CSB)
May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you
so that you might always be alert,
stand firm in the faith,
and do everything in love.
Recognition of College Graduating Seniors
Kim Becker, Shannon Clausen, Samantha Fults, Caleb Gonyo, Jared Grubbs, Noah Kopischke
Next week’s scripture passage: Joshua 23:1-16