Guide for the Preparation for Worship on 1 March 2020 Sunday, Feb 23 2020

1 March

Call to Worship: Psalm 105:1-3

Opening Hymn: Psalm 148B “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah”

Confession of Sin

O great and everlasting God, Who dwells in unapproachable light, Who searches and knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart; We confess that we have not loved You with all our heart, nor with all our soul, nor with all our mind, nor with all our strength; Nor our neighbors as ourselves.  We have loved what we ought not to have loved; We have coveted what is not ours; We have not been content with Your provisions for us.  We have complained in our hearts about our family, about our friends, about our health, about our occupations, about Your church, and about our trials.  We have sought our security in those things which perish, rather than in You, the Everlasting God.  Chasten, cleanse, and forgive us, through Jesus Christ, who is able for all time to save us who approach You through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us.  Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: Isaiah 44:21-23

Hymn of Preparation: 238 “LORD, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee”

Old Covenant Reading: Psalm 73:1-28

New Covenant Reading: 1 John 2:29-3:3

Sermon: Purified through Hope

Hymn of Response: 462 “Behold the Amazing Gift of Love”

Confession of Faith: Apostles Creed (p. 851)

Doxology (Hymn 568)

Closing Hymn: 343 “What Wondrous Love is This”

PM Worship

OT: Psalm 70:1-5

NT: Philippians 4:4-9

Urgent Prayer to a Timely God

Singing Psalm 70

Shorter Catechism Q/A # 25

Q. How doth Christ execute the office of a priest?
A. Christ executeth the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God; and in making continual intercession for us.

Suggested Preparations

Monday (2/24) Read and discuss 1 John 2:29-3:3. Karen Jobes writes:

What a wonder it is that God Himself is the origin of a person’s eternal, spiritual life just as physical life originates with a human father. Saying the sinner’s prayer or joining the church doesn’t do justice to the wonder of the reality such acts reflect, even though confession and church membership are good in themselves. The necessity of being born again to the Father shows the depths of sins destruction. Nothing less than a new birth can restore the life that was lost to sin. Nothing less than a new life can remedy the brokenness of a person’s relationship with God and destroy the works of the devil – both his work in Eden and in the ongoing effect of the evil that Satan has unleashed in the world.

The reconciliation that God offers through new birth comes from His love. Such love, John says, took wretched, sinful, rebellious, ungrateful people and gave to them the new identity of being a child of God, with all the wonders that entails. Being born of God is as irreversible as having been born physically; the concept of the new birth suggests that once one has been born of the Father, it is a permanent and eternal relationship that forms the firm foundation of the assurance of eternal life. As Lieu observes, the life that issues from the new birth cannot be lost or abrogated.

Read or sing Psalm 148B “Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah” Prayer: Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. His mercies endure forever!

Tuesday (2/25) Read and discuss 1 John 2:18-28. What do you think of when you hear that term “Antichrist?” What does the word “antichrist” conjure up in your imaginations? Many of us instinctively think of someone like Hitler or Stalin. And that isn’t entirely wrong. “Anti” means instead of or against – and clearly both Hitler and Stalin were opposing Jesus Christ – and, in some sense, setting themselves up as alternatives to Jesus Christ – as secular messiah figures. Who else? Just last week someone told me she thought that President Trump was the antichrist – which probably shows how overly obsessed we have become with our contemporary politics. But do you understand what this woman was doing by suggesting that President Trump might be the antichrist? She was identifying “antichrist” with a powerful figure that she really, really disliked. What I want you to see is that this is the very opposite of the way that John is presenting the antichrists. And, keep in mind, John is the only person in the bible who actually uses the term antichrist in any of his writings. John’s concern isn’t that the antichrist’s he is writing about are going to persecute the church. John’s concern is that these antichrists are really attractive and that they are going to lead members of the church astray into following them. Rather than thinking of antichrist figures as being conspicuously and repulsively evil – we ought to be thinking of them as attractive men and women whom we would be tempted to follow. Let me bring that up to our own day: An antichrist might be wearing a beautiful robe, standing in a pulpit, and preaching with a stained glass baritone voice about all the ways in which we can be better people – while denying the substitutionary atonement or that Jesus rose bodily from the dead. This is critical to grasp. For the chief threat to you faithfully following Jesus isn’t persecution from conspicuously evil men, it is being attracted by those who seem sophisticated, successful, and really nice – even while they tell you a lie. Sing or Read Hymn 238 “LORD, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee” Prayer: Please lift up our brothers and sisters at Jaffrey Presbyterian Church in Jaffrey, NH.

Wednesday (2/26) Read and discuss Psalm 73:1-28. Alec Motyer writes:

Psalm 73 contains one of the most rhapsodic and uplifting passages in the whole Psalter, and, indeed, there is hardly need for anything beyond letting their rhythms and sentiments sink into our souls. But, hoping to help and not hinder this process, look at some of the detail of these verses. They are the heart of the message of the psalms. Asaph is weight things in the balance: what can he reckon in his favor as compared with the ‘well-being’ of the ungodly which so troubled him. There are, indeed, things which we find in our heavenly ‘balance sheet’ – and which we should constantly prize. First and foremost is peace with God (23a), that we are constantly accepted, welcomed, retained in His presence. ‘Peace with God,’ the firstfruits of Calvary, our unchanging inheritance in Jesus. … Then there is security in His keeping – He who has gripped us by our hands. Thirdly, there is the problem of ‘the future all unknown.’ To us who cannot foresee what the end of this morning will bring, there is the comfort that everything that happens does so in conformity to and by direction of His ‘counsel’ (24a). What is impenetrable to us (the future) is an already drawn map lying before Him. We can never over-exalt the sovereignty of God: He is truly God – the God in charge. And we need to remind ourselves that this is even especially so when things turn out either other than we expect or could wish. He is always on our side; always implementing His counsel. All this is a store of pure gold entered in our account; yet the finest gold is yet to come.

Sing or Read Hymn 462 “Behold the Amazing Gift of Love” Prayer: Give thanks that the LORD has made you part of His Kingdom of Priests – and ask that you would be faithful in that role.

Thursday (2/27) Read and discuss Philippians 4:4-9. In light of what Christ has done for us, how then should we think? Because believing the right things is so important, we naturally want to emphasize that we should think in such a way as to embrace the truth and to shun errors and lies. That is where Paul begins but it is not where he ends. Consider what you think about in a typical day and compare that to what Paul calls us to meditate on: “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” If we take this seriously we will realize that there are many things which are true that we should avoid filling our minds with. A significant portion of the modern news industry is designed to entice us to watch/see commercials for things we don’t need by telling us true but often degrading stories that offer nothing of value to our lives. This is frequently the case with social media as well. The problem is that we become what we think about. If we fill our minds with defiling and dishonorable images we will fail to become the type of people who lift others up. Paul is not calling Christians to stick our heads in the sand. Because we have glimpsed the holiness of God, Christians should be more aware of the wretchedness of a fallen world than anyone else. Yet, it is one thing to recognize filth it is another thing altogether to roll around in it. Here is the hard part: Modern American culture promotes filling your mind with things that are worthy of shame. We cannot respond rightly to Paul’s admonition unless we do so self-consciously. Take a few minutes to think about the shows you watch, the news and web pages you regularly read, and the music you listen to. Then compare what you are now filling your mind with to what God wants you to fill your mind with.  If you need to make some changes (we all do!) – why not start today? Prayer: Ask the LORD to make your heart good soil for His word – that the word of God would produce a vast crop of good fruit in your life.

Friday (2/28) Read and discuss Psalm 70:1-5. James Mays writes:

Psalm 70 is an individual prayer for help. It is composed almost entirely of petitions. The psalm begins with vocatives and imperatives asking for the LORD’s help. Then petitions for the failure and disgrace of enemies are balanced by pleas on behalf of those who seek God. The prayer concludes with a twofold declaration of dependence on the LORD combined with imperatives asking for help. The motifs of “haste” and “help for me” form an inclusion around the whole. “I am poor and needy” is a declaration of dependence on the LORD, a confession that one has no resources to cope with the demands made by trouble. It it is a theological, not an economic statement. All the petitions in the prayer are the expressions of the confessed neediness.

Read or sing Hymn 343 “What Wondrous Love is This” Prayer: Humble yourself before the LORD and acknowledge that He is your only hope.

Saturday (2/29) Read and discuss 1 John 2:29-3:3. David Jackman writes:

Rightly to understand this concept of adoption, we have to remember that the choice lay entirely with the Father and was motivated only by His nature of love. Adoption is a legal action by which a person takes into his family a child who is not his own, who has no rights within that family, in order to give that child all the privileges of his own children. In Roman law, as in ours, an adopted child was entitled to all the rights and privileges of a natural-born child. What might motivate someone to do that, potentially at considerable cost to himself? Perhaps there might be something attractive about the child, or there might be an old friendship with his or her parents, who have died. But the basic motivation would be pity, compassion, love. Love gives. So it is with God, who ‘sent His Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons (Gal 4:4-5).’ In our case there was nothing attractive or even deserving in us to draw out that love, but God chose to love us, because He is love.

Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.

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Guide for the Preparation for Worship on 23 February 2020 Sunday, Feb 16 2020

23 February

Call to Worship: Psalm 98:1-3

Opening Hymn: 224 “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise”

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: Colossians 1:11-14

Hymn of Preparation: Psalm 8A “O LORD, Our Lord, in All the Earth”

Old Covenant Reading: Psalm 25:1-22

New Covenant Reading: 1 John 2:18-28

Sermon: Opposition to the Light

Hymn of Response: 500 “Father, I Know That All My Life”

Confession of Faith: Q/A 1 Heidelberg Catechism (p. 872)

Doxology (Hymn 568)

Closing Hymn: Psalm 2A “Why Do Heathen Nations Rage”

PM Worship

OT: Psalm 1:1-6

NT: Ephesians 4:1-6

Worthy Walking

Shorter Catechism Q/A # 24

Q. How doth Christ execute the office of a prophet?
A. Christ executeth the office of a prophet, in revealing to us, by his word and Spirit, the will of God for our salvation.

Suggested Preparations

Monday (2/17) Read and discuss 1 John 2:18-28. David Jackman writes:

It is not so much that we need to be learning new truth. Novelty in itself can be a great snare. Rather, we need to be learning more deeply and practicing more fully the great truths we have been aware of from the start of our Christian experience. Many of us modern Christians spend comparatively little time allowing the majestic truths of our faith to settle deeply into our consciousness. We spend a lot of time talking about our experience of living the Christian life, but not so much dwelling on the character of God, the person of Christ, His atoning death, His resurrection life, the person and activity of the Holy Spirit, and then our universal human sinfulness, the grace of God in salvation, the process of becoming like Jesus (sanctification) and the hope of glory. These truths exist as living realities, independent of us, but they need to be permanently living in our minds and wills. As with children, we shall need to be fed milk before we can progress to solids, but it is only by feeding on God’s truth that we can grow as Christians at all.

Read or sing Hymn 224 “Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise” Prayer: Give thanks that the LORD has revealed Himself to you in His word.

Tuesday (2/18) Read and discuss Ezekiel 36:16-24. Iain Duguid writes:

What Israel had done while they lived in their land was to turn it into a permanent place of death, thoroughly defiling it by means of bloodshed and idolatry, making it a place unfit for divine habitation for the living God. God had no choice but to bring them among the nations, just as he had threatened when they first entered the land (Deut. 29:22-28).

This action, however, created a new problem for God. He had promised to bring this people, who were called by his name, into the land of Canaan to possess it. He had established a relationship between himself, his people, and the land. Yet now the nations could see that the LORD’s people were absent from his land. That three-way relationship had been broken. The conclusion drawn by the surrounding nations would be natural: The LORD’s power was insufficient to bring about that which he promised. He had given up on his people as a bad job. The final elimination of those people for their sins – what Moses had feared in Numbers 14:15-16 and had prayed against – had finally become a reality.

Thus, as long as Israel was scattered among the nations, they continually profaned the divine name. This was now not because of anything particular they were doing, although there is no suggestion that the shock of exile in and of itself brought about a radical change in their behavior. Rather, they profaned God’s name simply by being in exile instead of the land of promise.

All of which brings Ezekiel to the reasons for God’s future mercy. If there had been no other reasoning involved for God than the necessity of dealing with Israel’s sin, permanent wrath would have sufficed. Israel could simply and deservedly have been blotted out from the pages of history of an example of the power of God’s holiness and his anger against sin. It is not God shrinks from dealing out such judgment that he stays his hand from crushing Israel comprehensively and finally. After all, he had earlier repeatedly declared that he would not have compassion on sinners. As was the case for the people of Noah’s day, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, or the Amorites living in the land at the time of Joshua’s assault, those whose sins were full could simply have been totally destroyed.

However, the Israelites of Ezekiel’s day were not completely destroyed. Why not? Because [even if he had] no compassion on them, God will nevertheless have concern for his name, which he had inextricably linked to Israel by entering covenant with them. Because of that sovereign irrevocable act, mercy not only may but must be shown to Israel. The honor of God’s name will be vindicated by a show of power among the nations when he brings Israel back to her land. The LORD will act, not for Israel’s sake, but for the sake of his own name.

Sing or Read Hymn Psalm 8A “O LORD, Our Lord, in All the Earth” Prayer: Give thanks that the LORD has placed His name upon you so that vindicating you and vindicating His name belong together.

Wednesday (2/19) Read and discuss Psalm 25:1-22. Alec Motyer writes:

Psalm 25 is profoundly comforting. … The holy God, who insists on His holiness as the standard, is also the forgiving God. This means that He always has other things in mind than just our sinfulness and unworthiness. According to 25:6-7, He can look back over our sin-stained past and forget what He has seen! But, compares with what He banishes from mind and memory, three things are permanent: ‘compassion,’ His solemnly ‘committed love,’ and His ‘goodness.’ He never looks at us [except] through these three windows; indeed, says the remarkable verse 8, it is actually because (‘therefore’) He is good and upright that He bothers with sinners so as to lead and teach us. How good is that! Using the great, comprehensive word ‘holy,’ we rightly tremble at the thought of standing before the holy God, and then, reading 25:8, we can say that it is because He is holy that He bothers! Verse 11 puts the same truth in another way: it is ‘for His name’s sake’ – that is to say, because He is what He is; because His ‘name’ is an accurate shorthand for His revealed nature, He pardons my iniquity, great as it is.

Sing or Read Hymn 500 “Father, I Know That All My Life” Prayer: Please pray for the Supreme Court of the United States.

Thursday (2/20) Read and discuss Psalm 1:1-6. The first Psalm is so important to the Christian life that it is well worth memorizing so that you can meditate upon it throughout the day. Allen P. Ross explains the central message of the psalm:

By drawing a contrast between the righteous and the ungodly, the psalmist instructs believers not to live the way the world lives, not to take spiritual, moral, or ethical advice from unbelievers, and not to join them in their profane enterprises; rather, believers must study the word of God in order to live an untarnished and productive life for God, and that life will be evidence of a living faith that will see them through the judgment, when God judges the wicked. …

For believers, the application is obvious: they must spend time meditating on God’s word so that they may live a distinct and productive spiritual life for God, and in the process find assurance that God knows them and will preserved them through the judgment. To unbelievers the message is urgent: they must come to faith in the Lord, because if they live their lives without faith in him or his word, not even their good deeds will count and they will not survive the judgment to come.

Prayer: Ask the LORD to bring visitors to our congregation who would be blessed by uniting with us and whose gifts would be used to build up this local church family.

Friday (2/21) Read and discuss Ephesians 4:1-6. Where does the idea for Church unity start? It begins with our calling. This isn’t our vocation to be carpenters, homemakers, or salesmen but the more basic calling to be Christians. N.T. Wright puts it like this:

(Paul) is referring to the basic calling of the gospel itself, summoning people to believe in Jesus as the risen Lord and King and to give Him complete and undivided allegiance for the rest of their lives.

A key part of this calling is the Christian hope, which works like this. Because King Jesus has conquered death itself, all who give Him their faithful allegiance are assured that the same victory will be theirs as well. This is the ‘calling’ to which they must ‘live up’. At every moment, in every decision, with every word and action, they are to be aware that the call to follow Jesus the Messiah, and give Him their complete loyalty, takes precedence over everything else. 

In particular, this must lead them back again and again to celebrate their unity, to maintain and guard it. They are, after all members of the same body and sharers in the same Spirit. They possess the same hope. Above all, they have the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, and the same God – the true God, the sovereign one who stands over against all other gods and goddesses as the rising sun does to man-made candles and torches.

Read or sing Psalm 2A “Why Do Heathen Nations Rage” Prayer: Ask the LORD to guard the unity and peace of our local church.

Saturday (2/22) Read and discuss 1 John 2:18-28. Karen Jobes writes:

The apostles commissioned as Jesus’ witnesses, primarily those present in the upper room when Jesus [spoke about the giving of the Holy Spirit], provided the Spirit-inspired interpretation of the significance of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus when they wrote, or were responsible for the writing of, the books of the NT. Apostolic testimony was completed with the closing of the canon. But orthodox Christian doctrine continued to develop over the first four centuries of the church, and even today issues arise that demand theological inquiry. Furthermore, the task of theological exegesis of Scripture is to infer meaning from the biblical texts that goes beyond their specific historical context to address issues and concerns that the church has not before faced.

Jesus Himself delimits … claims of Spirit-revealed truth: they must “glorify” Jesus Christ. Any teaching that claims the Spirit’s authority must involve the incarnate Son of God who atoned for sin on the cross. The issue at the time John wrote – who is Jesus? – remains the central issue today. The only authorized source that answers that question is the divinely inspired, apostolic teaching preserved in the pages of Scripture. … Neither Jesus nor John denies the need for ongoing exposition of the Scripture in the church, but John affirms that we already have all the knowledge we need about who Jesus Christ is. John’s point is that the truth of apostolic teaching, now preserved in the canon of Scripture, is the full truth.

Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.

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16 February 2020 Sunday, Feb 9 2020

16 February – Ryan Gabel preaching

Call to Worship: Psalm 96:1-3

Opening Hymn: 288 “We Come, O Christ, to You”

Confession of Sin      

Almighty God, Who are rich in mercy to all those who call upon You; Hear us as we humbly come to You confessing our sins; And imploring Your mercy and forgiveness.  We have broken Your holy laws by our deeds and by our words; And by the sinful affections of our hearts.  We confess before You our disobedience and ingratitude, our pride and willfulness; And all our failures and shortcomings toward You and toward fellow men.  Have mercy upon us, Most merciful Father; And of Your great goodness grant that we may hereafter serve and please You in newness of life; Through the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: 1 John 2:1

Hymn of Preparation: 283 “Fairest Lord Jesus”

Old Covenant Reading: Exodus 16:1-8

New Covenant Reading: John 6:26-35

Sermon: Wonder Bread

Hymn of Response: Psalm 29A “Now unto the LORD, All You Sons of the Mighty”

Confession of Faith: Ten Commandments

Doxology (Hymn 568)

Diaconal Offering                  

Closing Hymn: 157 “When Morning Gilds the Skies”

PM Worship

OT: Psalm 23

NT: John 10

Who’s Your Shepherd

Shorter Catechism Q/A # 23

Q. What offices doth Christ execute as our redeemer?
A. Christ, as our redeemer, executeth the offices of a prophet, of a priest, and of a king, both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation.

Suggested Preparations

Monday (2/10) Read and discuss John 6:26-35. God had multiplied the bread and the fish as a sign. The crowd should have traced the supernatural provision of food back to the goodness and astonishing power of Jesus. That is, the crowd should have seen the miracle and believed in Jesus. But they didn’t do that. Instead they were getting the relationship between Jesus and the physical bread exactly backwards. Instead of seeing the arrow as pointing from the physical bread to Jesus, they saw the arrow as pointing from Jesus to what they really wanted – the physical bread. It isn’t as though they didn’t see Jesus as valuable. They thought Jesus was so valuable that they wanted to make Him their King. The problem was that they saw Jesus as valuable only because of the physical goods He could provide for them. Jesus healed the sick and gave them free food, but they didn’t desire Jesus Himself as their greatest good and they weren’t thinking in spiritual terms at all. This form of idolatry, where the people can appear to be seeking Jesus or otherwise “religious”, is rampant in our own day. This idolatry is at the very heart of the so called “health and wealth” gospel – which is no gospel at all. Indeed, even many evangelical churches that would explicitly condemn the heresy taught by someone like Joel Osteen are still trying to sell Christianity in our culture by telling people that they will have better marriages, more successful children, or a whole range of things other than Jesus. Let me state the problem plainly: If you want to use God rather than love God you are an idolater. Sadly, this sort of idolatry is actually being promoted by people who call themselves ministers and organizations which call themselves churches. Please don’t misunderstand me: When we cling to Jesus Christ, God is delighted to frequently give us many other blessings as expressions of His love for us. We ought to enjoy those blessings with grateful hearts. But here is the key point: We ought to enjoy the blessings that God gives us expressions of His love for us rather than viewing God as someone to be used for the sake of gaining those material benefits – when it is those material benefits rather than God that our hearts truly crave. Read or sing Hymn 288 “We Come, O Christ, to You” Prayer: Take time to name 3 things that the LORD has blessed you with, and then give thanks that these are signs of God’s love for you in Jesus Christ.

Tuesday (2/11) Read and discuss 1 John 2:15-17. Saint Augustine writes:

Dear friends, be aware of this. Don’t let Satan steal up on you, saying the things typical of him, such as, “Enjoy everything God has made! Why has He made them if not for you to enjoy? People get intoxicated by this and are ruined and forget their Creator. When they use the things He has made avidly and immoderately, they are snubbing Him. Paul says of people like this that “they worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.” God doesn’t forbid you to love these things, but He doesn’t want you to value them as the source of your happiness. Rather, He wants you to approve and praise them in order for you to love Him who is their Creator.

It’s as if a bridegroom were to give a ring to his bride, and she came to value the ring more than the one who gave it. By all means let her love the bridegroom’s gift, but fi she were to say, “The ring’s enough for me, I don’t want to see his face,” what sort of woman would this be? Who wouldn’t consider her an adulteress in her heart? The reason a bridegroom gives a pledge is to be loved in his pledge. Well then, God gave you all these things, so love Him who made them! There’s something more that He wants to give you: He wants to give you Himself, who made these things. Even though they are made by God, if you love them and disregard Him and love the world, won’t your love be counted adulterous?

Sing or Read Hymn 283 “Fairest Lord Jesus” Prayer:

Wednesday (2/12) Read and discuss Exodus 16:1-15. Sometimes Christians feel the pinch that comes from following God’s ways in a world disordered by sin. When this pain gives way to grumbling, such complaining is almost always (1) Misdirected; (2) Irrational; and (3) Based upon a misunderstanding of the LORD’s character. The setting of today’s passage is straightforward: “It is now six weeks after the Exodus. With the oasis at Elim now behind them and the provisions brought from Egypt exhausted, the people face a severe shortage of food. The wilderness conditions offer little possibility of securing fresh supplies. Popular discontent flares, and harsh accusations are hurled against Moses and Aaron (Nahum Sarna).” This response is …

1. MISDIRECTED. As Moses points out, there complaint is really against God. To make his point more emphatic, Moses actually asks “What are we” in verse 8 using a term that applies to things rather than people (Paul does the exact same thing in 1 Corinthians 3:5: “What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each”). Moses is making it clear that he and Aaron are merely instruments in the LORD’s hand that should neither be blessed nor cursed for leading Israel out of Egypt. People haven’t changed very much. Religious people rarely acknowledge that they are grumbling with God. Instead they complain about their boss, their church leadership, or their spouse. Yet, if we find ourselves becoming critical in these ways we need to recognize that we are not being content with God’s plan for our lives and then we need to turn and place our trust more fully in Him.
2. IRRATIONAL. Only six weeks earlier this Israelites had walked across the Red Sea on dry ground, yet now they seemed to think that they were all going to die in the wilderness. Once they found themselves longing for “the good old days” when they were slaves in Egypt, they should have realized that something had gone fundamentally wrong in their thinking. Nevertheless, don’t Christians sometimes lament the loss of their former lives when they were slaves to sin? One of the ways to work toward our own contentment is to regularly recall the great things that God has already done for us and then to look to the fulfillment of His promises with confidence.
3. MISUNDERSTANDING GOD. On the one hand, the Israelites seemed to be doubting God’s ability to provide for them. On the other hand (and perhaps more fundamentally), they seemed to be doubting the LORD’s good intentions for them. We also need to remember the astonishing grace and mercy of our Lord and that He is for usin Christ.

Interestingly, God responds to Israel’s grumbling by literally raining food down from heaven for them to eat. Yet this is not merely a form of provision it is also a test. Will Israel learn to trust God to provide for their needs? How can we know? If they actually trust God they will keep the Sabbath day. Regretfully, as the rest of the chapter makes clear, even raining food down from heaven did not cause the people of Israel to put their trust in God.Sing or Read Hymn Psalm 29A “Now unto the LORD, All You Sons of the Mighty” Prayer: Ask that the LORD would increase your confidence in His provision.

Thursday (2/13) Read and discuss Psalm 23. The Bible teaches us that “godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6).” We instinctively know that this is true. But where can we find this contentment? Sadly, our society seems intent on cultivating discontent in our lives in order to sell us new products or to sign us up for one movement or another. For certain, there are times in our lives when we all feel content. Perhaps it is after a particularly good day of work or after acing an exam. For some of us it is those times when we can sit on a deck in tranquility with someone we love. We should cherish such times, but we all know that such moments are fleeting. The problem is that the world virtually conspires to steal away our contentment and permanently securing the idyllic circumstances that make us feel content is simply beyond our power. What we need is someone who is both all-powerful and entirely good to secure our present and our future for us. What we need to do is to find our contentment in God. As John Phillips points out, Psalm 23 reveals our Good Shepherd as “One who can take care of our frailty; … One who can take care of our foes; and finally (as) One who can take care of our future.” That is why we sing:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll;

Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,

It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come

Let this blest assurance control,

That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,

And has shed His own blood for my soul.

Prayer: Please lift up our brothers and sisters a Covenant OPC in Barre, VT.

Friday (2/14) Read and discuss John 10:1-21. Chuck Swindoll writes:

Jesus’ statement is strong “I AM”, paired with the phrase “good shepherd,” which is particularly emphatic in Greek. What follows is a clear foreshadowing of the persecution he will suffer and a strong affirmation of His substitutionary death on behalf of His believers. Just as important is His acknowledgement that truth always has been a lightning rod for evil; nevertheless, He will not flinch as evil strikes Him with all the power of hell. As the Creator, he cannot be overpowered by anything. Yet He will voluntarily suffer and die to carry out the Father’s redemptive plan.

This sets Jesus apart from the religious leaders of the people, who supposedly shepherd the people of God. Whereas He is selfless, they are selfish. Whereas He will lay down His life for the sheep, they will abandon all to save themselves. Whereas Jesus lived in complete obedience to the Father, they obeyed their own lusts.

Read or sing Hymn 157 “When Morning Gilds the Skies” Prayer: Ask the LORD to make you more selfless by giving you greater confidence that the LORD will meet all of your needs.

Saturday (2/15) Read and discuss John 6:16-40. Edward Klink writes:

[This portion of God’s word] was carefully crafted so as to reflect inappropriate expressions of disbelief or dissatisfaction in God through allusions to the Israelites in the wilderness as they complained and argued with Moses and, therefore, with God. As Hoskyns describes it, by their grumbling against Jesus in this periscope, “They preserve the genuine succession of unbelief.” Like their forefathers, the Jews were opposing God himself. The rebuke by Christ serves to exhort the reader to avoid bringing against God any categories of unbelief, including elements of arrogance or human wisdom. So often we think we have words for God, or we would like him to hear how we think he should view a situation – often our own situation, so as to get a different result. … This is neither reality nor the mark of Christian discipleship. The disciple of Jesus willingly declares, “Be Thou my Vision,” and really means it; not because the Christian has no intellect or foresight, but because his reason and foresight have found their true source and substance.

Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.

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Guide for the Preparation for Worship on 9 February 2020 Sunday, Feb 2 2020

9 February

Call to Worship: Psalm 100:1-5

Opening Hymn: 281 “Rejoice, the LORD is King”

Confession of Sin      

Almighty God, Who are rich in mercy to all those who call upon You; Hear us as we humbly come to You confessing our sins; And imploring Your mercy and forgiveness.  We have broken Your holy laws by our deeds and by our words; And by the sinful affections of our hearts.  We confess before You our disobedience and ingratitude, our pride and willfulness; And all our failures and shortcomings toward You and toward fellow men.  Have mercy upon us, Most merciful Father; And of Your great goodness grant that we may hereafter serve and please You in newness of life; Through the merit and mediation of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon: Micah 7:18-20

Hymn of Preparation: 536 “Jesus Calls Us”

Old Covenant Reading: Psalm 23:1-6

New Covenant Reading: 1 John 2:15-17

Sermon: Love Wisely

Hymn of Response: 465 “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling”

Confession of Faith: Nicene Creed (p. 852)

Doxology (Hymn 568)          

Closing Hymn: 497 “More Love to Thee, O Christ”

PM Worship

OT: Psalm 145:1-21

NT: Ephesians 3:14-21

Strengthened by the LORD

Shorter Catechism Q/A # 22

Q. How did Christ, being the Son of God, become man?
A. Christ, the Son of God, became man, by taking to himself a true body and a reasonable soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.

Suggested Preparations

Monday (2/3) Read and discuss 1 John 2:15-17. Bruce Schuchard writes:

John speaks of the passing away of the world characterized in 2:15-16, the permanent and definitive demise of the world of darkness. How pointless, how fraught with folly, is the love that devotes itself to that which is fleeting. Not knowing or seeing the love of God who by His love makes all things news, the world is waning. Lenski adds:

Its doom is overtaking it. Its glory is fading, its flowers are withering, its promises are failing, its hopes are crumbling. A thousand wrecks like strewn along its path and soon it shall be altogether wreck and ruin. This is also true regarding “the lust for it. What this implies for the lovers of the world John lets us conclude for ourselves. They will be left naked, wretched, shattered, doomed. All their treasures and pleasures will, like water, have slipped through their fingers, their castles will be in ashes, their crowns a curse. Their souls, burnt and blasted by the lusts for the world, will have nothing left but endless remorse and penalty.

Does the siren voice of the world tickle your ears? Hear the word of truth: ‘The world is passing away!’ The bank is breaking, it was never solvent – will you deposit in it? The foundation is tottering, it was never solid but only sham – will you build on it? The mountain is rumbling, quaking, it will never [be] anything but volcanic, ready to blow off its head at any time – will you build your city there?

Therefore, “a wise father,” observes Hilary of Arles, ‘warns his children not to love things which quickly vanish away. This wisdom is the crowning glory of the supreme Maker of all things, and it is well-suited to everyone who is righteous.

Read or sing Hymn 281 “Rejoice, the LORD is King” Prayer: Ask the LORD to lead the young people of our congregation to set their eyes on eternal things and to delight in seeking first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness.

Tuesday (2/4) Read and discuss 1 John 2:12-14. Why is the forgiveness of sins such a big deal for genuine Christians? One obvious and critical reason is that our sins have separated us from God. Left to ourselves, each and every one of us has sinned enough since we awoke this morning to send us to hell forever – and that is just on the Sabbath day while we were getting ready to come to church. Thanks be to God that the LORD has not left us to ourselves. Through the person and work of Christ you have been made whiter than snow. And notice that John uses the perfect tense. Here, the perfect tense refers to something that has been done with an emphasis on the state which exists because that action has been accomplished: “your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.” The NIV translates this perfect tense verb “your sins have been forgiven on account of His name” … but both translations are trying to bring out the same point. We could also bring out the force of what John is writing by saying: “Your sins stand forgiven on account of His name.” Because of who Christ is and what He has done, all of your sins have been decisively forgiven … and you are now and will forever remain in this new state as a forgiven child of God. That’s good news all by itself, but let’s connect the dots. There is a corporate church-family dimension to what John is writing. Remember that there is a group of people who has rocked the community John is writing to by separating themselves off from the Apostolic Church. These people didn’t stop being religious. In fact, they were claiming to have deeply spiritual insights and more dramatic spiritual experiences than those in the Apostolic Church. John has emphatically denounced them as self-deceived individuals who are walking in the darkness. But now John tells the believers who have remained in the Apostolic Church that they are the community of those whose “sins stand forgiven on account of His name.” Sing or Read Hymn 536 “Jesus Calls Us” Prayer: Please lift up our brothers and sisters in Venezuela as their country continues to be rocked by an economic and political crisis.

Wednesday (2/5) Read and discuss Psalm 23:1-6. D.A. Carson helpfully reminds us that the model by which we understand something largely determines what we see. For example, how do you think about the Church? If you think of the Church as an organization, you will focus on management and programs. If you think of the Church as a family, you will focus on relationships. If you think of the Church as the pillar and foundation of the truth, you will focus on teaching and the proclamation of the Apostolic Gospel. All of these models are valid. We are therefore to see the Church through all of these models (and many others) rather than reducing it down to our favorite model. One obvious question that this raises is what primary metaphor to you use as a model for thinking about God?  Frequently, in the Psalms, God is referred to as Creator and King. He is also referred to using abstract language like “Rock” and “Fortress”. In Psalm 23 David selects a metaphor that would have been very personal. He likens God to a Shepherd.  Remember that David himself had been a shepherd as a boy and continued to think of his own kingship as a type of shepherding of the people of Israel.  As a good shepherd, David cared for and defended the sheep with great courage.  As David told Saul before going out to fight against Goliath:

“Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them, for he has defied the armies of the living God.” And David said, “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you!”

With this in mind, perhaps the most striking word in the psalm is “my”. It doesn’t entirely shock us that the Creator of the Universe would be the Shepherd of the whole flock of Israel. What is astonishing is that He personally cares for each one of His sheep. As we confess in the Heidelberg Catechism: “Without the will of my heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must be subservient to my salvation.” This is a beautiful truth. It is also one that leads all thoughtful readers to ask: Is the LORD my Shepherd the way that He was David’s Shepherd? Sing or Read Hymn 465 “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” Prayer: Give thanks that Jesus is your Good Shepherd.

Thursday (2/6) Read and discuss Psalm 145:1-21. Commenting on verses 1 through 3, Ligon Duncan says:

David shows us that praise requires great thoughts of God and great thoughts of God fuel our praise. He begins this way. “I will extol You, My God and King, and bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You and praise Your name forever and ever. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable.” That vision of God’s greatness leads David to say that He is to be greatly praised. Notice the logic — great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. That means that our praise is tied to our view of who God is. If we believe that God is great, it moves us to great praise, but if our hearts have low views of Him, if we lack appreciation of His greatness, it will lead to a lack of praise and worship. Low views of God lead to low views of sin, weak motivation to service, and empty worship. William Plumer, the commentator that I’ve so often quoted to you in this series, says this. “Nothing has a more pernicious effect on character than low thoughts of God. Unless we have great thoughts of God, our thoughts of sin will be low, our sense of obligation feeble, and our praises dull.” And that’s borne out by what David says here in verse 3. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.” You will not greatly praise the Lord if you don’t think He’s great.

Prayer: Please pray for our brothers and sisters at the Presbyterian Church of Cape Cod.

Friday (2/7) Read and discuss Ephesians 3:14-21. James Montgomery Boice writes:

It is God’s ability to do all we can ask or imagine that encourages us to stretch forward spiritually and ask for more. My father-in-law was a banker in New York City, and he frequently passed on to me the kind of jokes bankers tell one another. One was about a loan officer who tried to run a gas station in his retirement years. He had been a successful banker, but failed at running a gas station. Whenever a customer came in and asked for ten gallons of gas, he would respond, “Can you get by with fiver?” Paul tells us that God is not like that. He does not give half of what we ask for (if we ask rightly), but all. Indeed, it is his ability to give all we ask or imagine that encourages us to come with big petitions.

Read or sing Hymn 497 “More Love to Thee, O Christ” Prayer: Ask that the LORD would teach you to imitate His generosity.

Saturday (2/8) Read and discuss 1 John 2:15-17. David Jackman writes:

In verse 16 John defines more clearly for us what he means by the things that are in the world. It is obvious that he is not thinking about ‘things’ in themselves, such as money or possessions, which are morally neutral. Rather he is talking about our personal attitudes towards these things. The ‘worldly’ characteristics of which the verse speaks are in fact reactions going on inside us, as we contemplate the environment outside. That is very true to Scripture’s teaching concerning the fundamental roots of mankind’s problems. You could put a human being in the most perfect, favorable, and natural environment and he will spoil and defile it. The reason is not because of deficiencies in the environment but because of what is going on inside of him. As the Lord Jesus put it, ‘What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man unclean.’ Small wonder that Mark Twain said that man is the only animal with the capacity to blush, and the only one that needs to! It is important that we grasp this perspective, since Christians have often been content to define ‘worldliness’ as consisting primarily in the things that people do or the places they visit. But John is concerned to show us that the world affects us much more deeply than that. The motives and attitudes of our minds and wills are what ultimately dictate our actions. Our affections are set either on this world or on God. It is impossible to love them both.

Prayer: Please lift up tomorrow’s morning and evening worship services.

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