MVOPC 8 January 2012

Call to Worship: Psalm 96:1-3

Opening Hymn: 5 “God, My King, Thy Might Confessing”

Confession of Sin

Most holy and merciful Father;  We acknowledge and confess before You;  Our sinful nature prone to evil and slothful in good;  And all our shortcomings and offenses.  You alone know how often we have sinned;  In wandering from Your ways;  In wasting Your gifts;  In forgetting Your love.  But You, O Lord, have pity upon us;  Who are ashamed and sorry for all wherein we have displeased You.  Teach us to hate our errors;  Cleanse us from our secret faults;  And forgive our sins for the sake of Your dear Son.  And O most holy and loving Father;  Help us we beseech You;  To live in Your light and walk in Your ways;  According to the commandments of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.  Assurance of Pardon: Romans 1:16-17

Old Covenant Reading: Malachi 3:1-5

New Covenant Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:1-10

Hymn of Preparation:  347 “The Church’s One Foundation”

Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 3:10-15

Sermon: Building for Eternity

Hymn of Response:  345 “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken”

Confession of Faith:  Ten Commandments

Doxology (Hymn 732)

Closing Hymn: 358 “For All the Saints”

PM Worship: Hosea 12:7-14 -Woven Together: Judgment and Deliverance

Adult Sunday School: Covenant Baptism Part IV – Conclusion

Suggested Preparations 

Monday (1/2) Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Living out the Christian life is stereotypically described in the negative in terms of the things that Christians don’t (or at least shouldn’t) do. In today’s passage we see Paul focusing on the positive building project that Christians ought to be engaged in. As God’s children we are granted the privilege of being a part of the most important project in the history of the world. Isn’t it odd then that some Christians would choose to engage in this task in a way that superficially looks good but that has no lasting value? Why would anyone do that? John Murray suggests one answer:

The snare here is that there are accepted patterns of behavior prevalent in business, in society, and in the professing church that are the violation of the commands of God. And because they are the accepted patterns they are not reckoned to be wrong and we do not come under reproach when we conform.

Faithfulness to Christ is not about fitting into a mold (either of the world or of other apparently well-meaning Christians). God uses John the Baptist and John the beloved disciple. He uses Deborah and He uses Martha. Building with gold and silver simply means seeking His pleasure and His glory in the things that we are doing. Read or Sing Hymn: 5 “God, My King, Thy Might Confessing” Prayer: Please lift up Joe and Jenny Jager as they travel home from Fenna’s (Jenny’s mom) funeral.

Tuesday (1/3) Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 3:5-9.  As Roy Ciampa and Brian Rosner point out, “The thrust of this paragraph is evident in four parallel statements in which Paul attempts to shift the Corinthian’s focus from their leaders, to whom they claim to belong, to God to whom they really belong.” Undergirding Paul’s effort are two interlocking truths: (1) First, the laborers in God’s vineyard are interdependent; and (2) Second, any rivalry between either the servants or those who champion each servant is absurd. These are the kind of truths that we instinctively find ourselves responding “of course” to – but do we really believe them. What would our congregation look like if we focused on putting this paragraph into practice? The first thing we should say is that it would look a lot like it does now. It would be ungrateful of us not to recognize that the LORD is at work in our midst, weaving us together as a genuine church family that cares for each other and which seeks the praise of God rather than that of His servants. On the other hand, we can always grow into a deeper understanding of the gospel and greater faithfulness of putting the implications of the gospel into practice. One of the implications of the truth that God alone gives the increase is that we would become more devoted to living lives of prayer. As we are already a praying church, this might not look at lot different than what we are currently doing. Yet, we should not simply assume that our culture has had no impact on our prayer lives. Is it not the case that we often begin with our plans and then ask God to bless them? Such an approach assumes that what we are doing is fundamental and what God is doing is supplemental. If we truly grasp that nothing good ever happens apart from the work of God we will reverse this priority and make prayer fundamental and our labors supplemental. Outwardly, this two patterns may look identical. We still need to make plans, set agendas, send e-mails, and do all those things that we are able to do as faithful stewards of our time and the gifts God has equipped each of us with. Yet, the LORD is calling us to approach these tasks with a different attitude. Instead of asking God to bless our plans and labors, we are being called to ask the LORD to act and then to enter into His labors. Doing this has the practical benefit of taking the stress off of ourselves. It also means that God will receive all the glory. So how do we make this change? Perhaps it is best to simply keep being reminded of how great our God is and how everything depends on Him. Meditating on the psalms and then incorporating them into our prayers is also likely to help. Prayer: Ask the LORD to re-center your thinking to making trusting Him fundamental to everything you do. Also, please pray for the Women’s Retreat Planning Committee as it meets this evening.

Wednesday (1/4) Read and discuss Malachi 3:1-5. Most of the difficult things we are called to do are actually quite simple to understand. In fact, virtually the entirety of the Christian life can be summarized under the slogan Trust and Obey. For example, Christians sometimes become confused over the Regulative Principle of Worship (RPW) as though it were simply the subject of erudite debates among pin-headed academics. While it is true that some applications of the RPW are difficult to pin down with certainty, the underlying principle is much simpler: The RPW simply takes obedience to God’s revealed will in Scripture and applies that principle to corporate worship.  Rather than relying on our own imaginations or the wisdom of this world, the RPW reminds us that we are called to trust and obey in our corporate worship just as we do in the rest of our lives. Of course, God commands some things with great specificity and in many areas He gives us a great deal of freedom to simply use our own best judgment. Once we recognize that the RPW is simply about obedience, we will understand why churches that abandon worshipping God the way He instructs us to will naturally also fail to obey the LORD when He demands that we treat our neighbors with righteousness and compassion. Both sins are about who is ultimately in charge. In today’s passage, Malachi tells us in verses 3-4 how the LORD was going to purify the Levites so that pure worship would be offered to Him. This is immediately followed by verse 6 where there is a promise of judgment “against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.” An obedient heart (like a rebellious spirit) permeates all of life. One other observation is worth making: We all recognize that the promised messenger of Malachi 1 is John the Baptist (cf. Matthew 11:10). What is sometimes missed is who the messenger goes before. Malachi 3:1 tells us that the messenger will come “before Me” – that is, before Yahweh. To put the matter directly: Malachi 3:1 teaches that Jesus is God and that He bears the covenant name of Yahweh. It also reminds us that Jesus didn’t come to make obedience optional but to bring about the obedience of faith.  Read or Sing Hymn 347 “The Church’s One Foundation” Prayer: Pray for revival and reformation in New England.

Thursday (1/5) Read and discuss 2 Corinthians 5:1-10. When the going gets tough, the tough get going! That’s easier to say than to do. Yet, we are not only called but commanded to be courageous. One suspects that many Christians are surprised the first time they read Revelation 21:8 to discover which sin heads the list of those whose destiny is the lake that burns with unquenchable fire:

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

So, where do we get the courage we need to remain faithful? Murray Harris helpfully summarizes the three sources of such courage that Paul reveals to us in this passage:

Paul mentions three sources of divine comfort: assurance that he would become a possessor of a superior form of habitation (v. 1), an awareness that in giving the Spirit as the pledge of transformation God had committed himself to complete the good work of renewal he had begun (v. 5), and knowledge that death involves departure to Christ and leads to ‘walking in the realm of sight (vv. 7-8). The tone of 5:1-10 is not one of cringing fear arising from human uncertainties but of buoyant assurance born of divine certainties.

All three of these sources of courage are important and belong together. What Paul is calling Christians to have is a truly eternal perspective on our present circumstances. As he had told the Corinthians in the previous chapter: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Read or sing Hymn: 345 “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken” Prayer: Lift up the young people of our congregation that the LORD would make them men and women of genuine courage.

Friday (1/6) Hosea 12:7-14. James Montgomery Boice writes:

There is a word in the Hebrew of verse 7 that is obscured in most of the English translations. It is the word “Canaan” or “Canaanite,” translated “merchant” in most instances, thought footnotes sometimes indicate the other possibility (see KJV). This word stands first and isolated in verse 7, so that we could read: “Canaanite! He uses dishonest scales; he loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, ‘I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.’” (Canaanite also means merchant with an emphasis on being dishonest in trade, but by translating it “merchant” Hosea’s deliberate reference to the people of the land is obscured.)

The point is this. Before Israel settled in the land promised to them by God the land was called Canaan. It was an abominable place. Not only was it a center for all types of commercial dishonesty; it was also notorious for its sexual and religious depravity. Cultic prostitution was common. People worshipped symbols of the sexual organs. At ties children were sacrificed to Canaan’s gods. “Canaan” meant depravity. When Israel was sent into Canaan under Joshua, she was given the task of rooting out this corruption and establishing a culture marked by holiness instead. Israel’s task was to make Canaan Israel. What happened? Canaan made Israel Canaan!

Recite the Apostles Creed. Prayer:  Prayer: The past decade has seen numerous churches in North America rocked by all sorts of scandals. Let us pray that the LORD would sanctify His Church that we would be less worldly.

Saturday (1/7) Read and discuss 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. Richard Hays writes:

With the final words of verse 9, Paul shifts to a new metaphor. “You are God’s building.” This allows him to direct attention to a new focal concern: the urgency of constructing the church with integrity. In this new metaphor, Paul compares himself to a head building contractor who has carefully laid the foundation of a building and then let out the rest of the work to subcontractors. If their work Is not “up to code,” or if they fail to use suitable materials, there will be dire consequences.

We might think of what happens in California earthquakes. Some buildings that have been properly constructed to withstand the shocks remain standing, while others that have not been built according to sound principles of seismic engineering come tumbling down, with sometimes tragic results. Rather than earthquake, Paul uses the image of fire, a traditional Old Testament image for God’s judgment, but his point is the same. A cataclysm is coming that is going to test the structural integrity of our construction work, so we should build with great care. Our building should not be hasty, nor just for show: we must build our community solidly from the ground up in a way that is designed to endure.

Read or sing Hymn 358 “For All the Saints” Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.

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