Download: Readings and Song Lyrics for February 13, 2022
Reflection
Listen to me, house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been sustained from the womb,
carried along since birth.
I will be the same until your old age,
and I will bear you up when you turn gray.
I have made you, and I will carry you;
I will bear and rescue you.
Isaiah 46:3–4
Call To Worship
We confess the supremacy of God in Christ through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Call to Worship
From Psalm 108
Hear the Word of God, saints of Grand,
and let us be called to worship!
Oh God, our hearts are steadfast.
We will sing and give you praise!
Awake, harp and lyre!
We will awaken the dawn.
We will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples,
and we will sing praises to You
among the nations.
For Your mercy is great above the heavens,
and Your truth reaches to the clouds.
Be exalted, Oh God, above the heavens,
and Your glory above all the earth.
Our Sung Call to Worship
Speak, O Lord
Verse 1
Speak O Lord, as we come to You,
To receive the food of Your Holy Word.
Take Your truth, plant it deep in us;
Shape and fashion us in Your likeness;
That the Light of Christ might be seen today
In our acts of love and our deeds of faith.
Speak, O Lord, and fulfill in us
All Your purposes for Your glory.
Verse 2
Teach us Lord, full obedience,
Holy reverence, true humility.
Test our thoughts and our attitudes
In the radiance of Your purity.
Cause our faith to rise; cause our eyes to see
Your majestic love and authority.
Words of power that can never fail;
Let their truth prevail over unbelief.
Verse 3
Speak, O Lord and renew our minds;
Help us grasp the heights of Your plans for us.
Truths unchanged from the dawn of time,
That will echo down through eternity.
And by grace we’ll stand on Your promises;
And by faith we’ll walk as You walk with us.
Speak, O Lord, ‘til Your church is built,
And the earth is filled with Your glory.
Words and music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
©2005 Thankyou Music
Confession
We confess our need for mercy through both responsive reading and song.
Our Spoken Confession
From J. C. Philpot, 1858
No heart can sufficiently conceive
and no tongue can adequately confess
the state of wretchedness and ruin
into which sin has cast mankind.
We are separated from God,
severed from the only source
of all happiness and holiness.
Sin has ruined us, body and soul.
It has filled our bodies with sickness and disease.
It has defaced and destroyed the image of God
into which we were created.
Sin has shattered our mental faculties,
broken our judgment,
polluted our imagination,
and alienated our affections.
Sin has made us love evil and hate God.
Forgive us, O Lord.
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
From Isaiah 43
Thus says the Lord, who created you and formed you,
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by your name;
you are Mine!
When we pass through the waters,
You will be with us
and the rivers will not overflow us;
When we walk through the fire,
we will not be burned
for deliverance comes from the Lord our God.
The Holy One of Israel is your Savior.
You are precious in His sight,
and you are loved.
Fear not, for He is with you.
It is true.
Our God has spoken.
Blessed be His name!
Our Sung Profession of Assurance
The Power of the Cross
Verse 1
Oh to see the dawn of the darkest day:
Christ on the road to Calvary.
Tried by sinful men, torn and beaten, then
Nailed to a cross of wood. (Chorus 1)
Chorus 1
This the pow’r of the cross;
Christ became sin for us.
Took the blame, bore the wrath
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Verse 2
Oh to see the pain written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought, ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow. (Chorus 1)
Verse 3
Now the daylight flees, now the ground beneath
Quakes as its Maker bows His head.
Curtain torn in two, dead are raised to life
‘Finished!’ the vict’ry cry. (Chorus 1)
Verse 4
Oh to see my name written in the wounds,
For through Your suff’ring I am free.
Death is crushed to death, life is mine to live
Won through Your selfless love! (Chorus 2)
Chorus 2
This the pow’r of the cross
Son of God slain for us.
What a love, what a cost
We stand forgiven at the cross.
Words and Music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
©2005 Thankyou Music
His Mercy Is More
Verse 1
What love could remember no wrongs we have done?
Omniscient, all-knowing, He counts not their sum.
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore—
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. (Chorus)
Chorus
Praise the Lord, His mercy is more
Stronger than darkness, new every morn
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more.
Verse 2
What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
What Father so tender is calling us home?
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor,
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. (Chorus)
Verse 3
What riches of kindness He lavished on us—
His blood was the payment, His life was the cost!
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford.
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. (Chorus 2X’s)
Tag
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more.
Words and Music by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa
©2016 Getty Music Hymns and Songs, Getty Music Publishing, Love Your Enemies Publishing, Messenger Hymns
In Christ Alone
Verse 1
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.
Verse 2
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.
Verse 3
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.
Verse 4
No guilt in life, no fear in death—
This is the pow’r of Christ in me;
From life’s first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.
Ending
No pow’r of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home—
Here in the pow’r of Christ I’ll stand.
Words and Music by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
©2001 Thankyou Music
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
Acts 17:16-34 (CSB)
16 While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was deeply distressed when he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, as well as in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some said, “What is this ignorant show-off trying to say?” Others replied, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign deities”—because he was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.
19 They took him and brought him to the Areopagus, and said, “May we learn about this new teaching you are presenting? 20 Because what you say sounds strange to us, and we want to know what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners residing there spent their time on nothing else but telling or hearing something new.
22 Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. 23 For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. 24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ 29 Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination.
30 “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent, 31 because he has set a day when he is going to judge the world in righteousness by the man he has appointed. He has provided proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32 When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some began to ridicule him, but others said, “We’d like to hear from you again about this.” 33 So Paul left their presence.
34 However, some people joined him and believed, including Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.
This is the word of the Lord.
The grass withers, and the flower falls,
but the word of the Lord endures forever.
Sermon
Acts 17:16-34 – The Gospel Goes to Athens – 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 spoken word.
Blessing
Go in the peace of Jesus, our Lord.
Presentation of New Member – Steve Lind