Guide for Home Worship
March 29, 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

“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

~James 1:2-4

“Nothing is so certain as that which is certain after doubts. Shaking settles and roots.”

~The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes (1577-1635), Puritan pastor and theologian

“The truth that many people never understand, until it is too late, is that the more you try to avoid suffering the more you suffer because smaller and more insignificant things begin to torture you in proportion to your fear of being hurt.”

~The Seven Storey Mountain, Thomas Merton

“My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust?”

~Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis

“Christianity teaches that, contra fatalism, suffering is overwhelming; contra Buddhism, suffering is real; contra karma, suffering is often unfair; but contra secularism, suffering is meaningful. There is a purpose to it, and if faced rightly, it can drive us like a nail deep into the love of God and into more stability and spiritual power than you can imagine.”

~Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Tim Keller

“We may hence gather a most useful doctrine—That whenever signs of God’s wrath meet us in outward things, this remedy remains to us—to consider what God is to us inwardly; for the inward joy, which faith brings to us, can overcome all fears, terrors, sorrows and anxieties.”

~John Calvin (1509-1564), leader of the Protestant Reformation in Geneva

Opening Prayer

Call to Worship

from Psalm 46:1-7 (NIV)

LEADER: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.

CONGREGATION: Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

LEADER: There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.

CONGREGATION: God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day.

LEADER: Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.

CONGREGATION: The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

LEADER: Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth.

CONGREGATION: He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.

LEADER: Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

CONGREGATION: The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.

Songs

(sing as a group or sing along to recorded versions)

THIS IS MY FATHER’S WORLD
(Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901)

This is my Father’s world,
And to my list’ning ears,
All nature sings, and round me rings
The music of the spheres.
This is my Father’s world:
I rest me in the thought
Of rocks and trees, of skies and seas;
His hand the wonders wrought.

This is my Father’s world,
The birds their carols raise,
The morning light, the lily white,
Declare their Maker’s praise.
This is my Father’s world:
He shines in all that’s fair;
In the rustling grass I hear him pass,
He speaks to me every where.

This is my Father’s world,
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
The battle is not done;
Jesus who died shall be satisfied,
And earth and heav’n be one.
^{PUBLIC DOMAIN}

BE STILL MY SOUL
(Katharine von Schlegel 1697, Jason Ingram, Kari Jobe)

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side:
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain:
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In ev’ry change he faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heav’nly Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as he has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while he dwelt below.

In you I rest, in You I find my hope.
In you I trust, You never let me go.
I place my life within your hands alone
Be still, my soul.

Be still, my soul: the hour is hast’ning on
When we shall be for ever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

In you I rest, in You I find my hope.
In you I trust, You never let me go.
I place my life within your hands alone
Be still, my soul.
^{©2013 Worship Together Music, Sony/ATV Timber Publishing, Open Hands Music 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

Listen to Sermon

“O Let Me Never Forget”
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton
Download

Habakkuk 3:1-19 (ESV)

¹ A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

² O Lord, I have heard the report of you,
and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of the years revive it;
in the midst of the years make it known;
in wrath remember mercy.
³ God came from Teman,
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
⁴ His brightness was like the light;
rays flashed from his hand;
and there he veiled his power.
⁵ Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed at his heels.
⁶ He stood and measured the earth;
he looked and shook the nations;
then the eternal mountains were scattered;
the everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
⁸ Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers,
or your indignation against the sea,
when you rode on your horses,
on your chariot of salvation?
⁹ You stripped the sheath from your bow,
calling for many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains saw you and writhed;
the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice;
it lifted its hands on high.
¹¹ The sun and moon stood still in their place
at the light of your arrows as they sped,
at the flash of your glittering spear.
¹² You marched through the earth in fury;
you threshed the nations in anger.
¹³ You went out for the salvation of your people,
for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked,
laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah
¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors,
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
¹⁶ I hear, and my body trembles;
my lips quiver at the sound;
rottenness enters into my bones;
my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble
to come upon people who invade us.
¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Sharing Time

(have everyone share one thing that struck them from the sermon)

Songs

(sing as a group or sing along to recorded versions)

HE WILL HOLD ME FAST
(Ada Ruth Habershon, Matthew Merker)

When I fear my faith will fail,
Christ will hold me fast;
When the tempter would prevail,
He will hold me fast.
I could never keep my hold
Through life’s fearful path;
For my love is often cold;
He must hold me fast.

CHORUS:
He will hold me fast,
He will hold me fast,
For my Savior loves me so,
He will hold me fast.

Those He saves are His delight,
Christ will hold me fast;
Precious in His holy sight,
He will hold me fast.
He’ll not let my soul be lost;
His promises shall last;
Bought by Him at such a cost,
He will hold me fast.
(CHORUS)

For my life He bled and died,
Christ will hold me fast;
Justice has been satisfied;
He will hold me fast.
Raised with Him to endless life,
He will hold me fast
Till our faith is turned to sight,
When he comes at last.
(CHORUS)
^{©2013 Getty Music Publishing (Admin. by Music Services, Inc.) CCLI #1791178}

Closing prayer