Guide for Home Worship
April 5, 2020
The following page will take you through the order of worship for this Sunday. To access the recorded songs and sermon, use the embedded audio players in each section.
Please note: the song and sermon audio may not be available until Saturday evening.
Time of Reflection
“It is almost taken for granted throughout the New Testament that tribulation is the normal lot of Christians in this age: it is those who suffer for and with Christ now who will share his glory. ‘No cross, no crown.’”
~F.F. Bruce (1910-1990), noted biblical scholar
“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with his death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship
“The tragedy is that in the name of resisting the internal deterioration of faith and the corruption of the world around them, many Christians – and Christian conservatives most significantly – unwittingly embrace some of the most corrosive aspects of the cultural disintegration they decry. By nurturing its resentments, sustaining them through a discourse of negation toward outsiders, and in cases, pursuing their will to power, they become functional Nietzscheans, participating in the very cultural breakdown they so ardently strive to resist.”
~James Davison Hunter, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World
“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket – safe, dark, motionless, airless – it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”
~C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
Opening Prayer
Call to Worship
from Psalm 118
LEADER: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
CONGREGATION: Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
LEADER: The Lord is God,
and he has made his light to shine upon us.
CONGREGATION: Bind the festal sacrifice with cords,
up to the horns of the altar!
LEADER: You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.
ALL: Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
for his steadfast love endures forever!
Songs
(sing as a group or sing along to recorded versions)
A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD
(Martin Luther, 1529)
A mighty fortress is our God
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
Doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
And, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus it is He,
Lord Sabaoth, His name,
From age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
And though this world with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim–
We tremble not at Him;
His rage we can endure,
For lo His doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go,
This mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Corporate Reading:
Isaiah 50:4-9 (Read aloud together)
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.
Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.
The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.
I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
But the Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like a flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
He who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand up together.
Who is my adversary?
Let him come near to me.
Behold, the Lord God helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
I LIFT MY EYES UP
(Brian Doerksen)
I lift my eyes up, up to the mountains.
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from You
Maker of heaven, creator of the earth.
CHORUS:
Oh how I need You, Lord
You are my only hope
You are my only prayer
So I will wait for You
To come and rescue me
To come and give me life.
I lift my eyes up, up to my keeper
For you watch over me.
My help comes from You,
For you are faithful, and you will keep my life.
(CHORUS)
©1990 Vineyard Songs Canada (Admin. by Music Services) CCLI#1791178
Sharing
(as a lead in to the Prayer Time, as a group share how you are feeling and what you learning; below are suggested questions)
- What are you learning about life/God lately?
- What do you want to pray for this week?
- What fears are you experiencing with this pandemic?
Prayer Time
(have an open time of prayer or appoint one or two to pray)
- Confession of sins
- Praise and thanksgiving to God
- Petitions
(As you close your time of prayer, pray together The Lord’s Prayer)
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power,
And the glory, forever. Amen.
Listen to Sermon
“Following the King”
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
Download
Luke 9:51-62 (ESV)
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village.
57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” 58 And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” 59 To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” 60 And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” 61 Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” 62 Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Sharing Time
(have everyone share one thing that struck them from the sermon)
Songs
(sing as a group or sing along to recorded versions)
ON JORDAN’S STORMY BANKS
(Christopher Miner, Samuel Stennett, 1787)
On Jordan’s stormy banks I stand
And cast a wishful eye
To Canaan’s fair and happy land
Where my possessions lie.
All o’er those wide extended plains
Shines one eternal day
There God the Son forever reigns
And scatters night away.
CHORUS:
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound for the promised land,
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound (I am bound)
I am bound for the promised land.
No chilling winds nor pois’nous breath
Can reach that healthful shore
Sickness, sorrow, pain and death
Are felt and feared no more.
(CHORUS)
When shall I reach that happy place
And be forever blest
When shall I see my Father’s face
And in His bosom rest.
(CHORUS)
©1997 Christopher Miner CCLI #1791178