Worship Next Sunday
July 17, 2011
Preaching: Pastor Magee
Sermon text: Acts 7:1-2
Sermon title: “Honey from the Rock”
Music:
Opening – 167 When Morning Gilds the Skies
Preparation – 303 Blessed Jesus, at Your Word
Response – 420 At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing
Closing – 247 O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
Confession of Faith: Nicene Creed
OT Reading: Psalm 81
Preparation Guide
Sunday: Review morning sermon (evening service @ 5pm)
Monday: Acts 7
Tuesday: 2 Samuel 12:1-22
Wednesday: 2 Samuel 12:23-31
Thursday: Psalm 81
Friday: Exodus 20:3
Saturday: Acts 7
Suggested Bible Study and Prayers
(Passages that we will refer to in next Sunday's worship)
2 Samuel 12
Father God, You have sent to us servants of Your Word to speak the truth boldly. Our sin has been exposed. You have given us so many gifts, and You would have given more if we had only asked. Yet we have despised You, Your Word, and Your provision, for we have taken what was not ours. The consequences of our rebellion against You are serious. We rejoice in the fact that You have put away our guilt through the provision of a perfect substitute. Nonetheless, You discipline those You love. We face the seriousness of great loss, and we mourn. In our grief, You speak sweetly to us of a better day to come, and we believe. Though our loved ones may rest in the grave and they will not return to us, yet we are assured that we will go to them one day, together with all who are in Jesus. You are able to help us with comfort and assistance, even granting life in the face of tremendous loss. You send us forth again in useful service, that our lives might be well spent for the glory of Your Name. Thank you for Your faithful love, and for the forgiveness of sins.
Psalm 81
Great God, we should praise You with fullness of joy and expectation. You have redeemed us out of the greatest distress. We should listen to You completely. Why should there be strange gods among us? Why do we not follow Your commandments? You have great blessings planned for us, even through times of trouble. Will we still continue to deny You?
Acts 7
Our Father, grant that we would rightly appreciate the privilege of suffering for the name of Jesus Christ. Without this true assessment of our trials, we will always shrink away from a forthright statement of Your Word in situations of danger. You have sent one Man who would truly keep Your perfect Law. Through His death and resurrection He became the cornerstone of a new spiritual temple, Your church throughout the world. All of the patriarchs and heroes of the faith in earlier days longed for this day of the Messiah. Now He has actually visited us. This Jesus did all things well. He has poured out Your Holy Spirit upon Your church. We love the Law of Christ. We rejoice in the Temple of the Holy Spirit. We long for the fulfillment of Your promise in the age to come, in the land of Resurrection. We love the Word of the Prophets which has now come in person in the great beauty of our Messiah. He is the perfect Son of David, and He has built a new house for His people in His own world-wide body. We will not resist the Holy Spirit. We will love and serve the Righteous One. Teach us the truth about our sin, that we might more fully and earnestly repent of it and be forgiven. Though men might work together to kill us, Your truth can never be stopped. Grant us such a beauty of holiness and love that we would be willing to forgive those who seek our destruction.
