Sunday (4/4): review morning sermon (evening service @ 5:00 p.m.)
Monday (4/5): Read & discuss John 17:26b; read sermon outline
Supplementary Bible reading: John 17:6-26
Tuesday (4/6): Read & sing “All Praise to God, Who Reigns Above” (4)
Supplementary Bible reading: John 5:19-29
Wednesday (4/7): Read & sing Psalm 81
Supplementary Bible reading: John 10:17-18
Thursday (4/8): Read & sing “Be Thou My Vision” (642)
Supplementary Bible reading: 1 John 3:1-2
Friday (4/9): Read & sing “Lead On, O King Eternal” (580)
Supplementary Bible reading: Colossians 1:24-29
Saturday (4/10): Read & discuss John 17:26b; rev. sermon outline
Supplementary Bible reading: John 14:18-24
Next Sunday: April 11, 2010
Preaching: Pastor Steve Magee
Sermon text: John 17:26b
Sermon outline: “God’s love in us and God in us”
I. The Love of God for Jesus
II. THAT love in you
III. Jesus in you
Music: Opening – “All Praise to God, Who Reigns Above” (4)
Preparation – Psalm 81
Response – “Be Thou My Vision”
Closing – “Lead On, O King Eternal” (580)
Confession of Faith: the Nicene Creed
OT Reading: Genesis 22:1-19
NT Reflection: Hebrews 11:17-19
Suggested Bible Study and Prayers
(Passages that we will refer to in next Sunday's worship)
__ Exekiel 40
O Lord God, bring us to Your resurrection temple. Grant that we will be able to walk all around its courts. Bring us into the company of angels and holy men. What a great blessing to be in Your house! Let us see the gates of Your wonderful land. Cause us to walk through all the great rooms, and to see the wonder of everything in Your holy place. What must it be like to be in a place of such wonder, that the finest joys of earth would seem like nothing compared to the glory of even the pavement for the feet of men and angels? We long to walk on the steps in that place. We want to see it from every direction, and to explore it all from every vantage point. How we praise You, O Lord! What a joy it will be to be in the place won for us through the blood and righteousness of Christ. We think of the pain of Your Son as He longed to return to such a great place of glory. He faced the faithlessness of men here below everywhere He went. Everything here had the imprint of sin and misery on it. Yet He came and gave His life as the perfect whole burnt offering. There was nothing missing in the fullness of His life. He obeyed You perfectly with such an unusual combination of holiness and modesty. In His death He became the perfect sin offering for us. He is our great High Priest forever. Now He lives forever in the holy place above. We are overcome by the glory of this thought: We will be with Him one day, and we will see Him as He is!
__ 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?
__ Genesis 22
Lord God, You tested Abraham. You gave him a child. That child was Yours, just as Abraham was Yours. You asked Him to sacrifice his only son, this child of the promise, Isaac. He reasoned that You would provide a substitute for his son, and that You could raise the dead. You held him back from slaughtering the boy, yet he proved that he feared You and loved You above all. May we also fear You, and entrust our children to You. For Your Son is the great provision for our salvation. He has taken our place and faced Your wrath, and He has surely risen from the dead. In Him the earth shall be blessed. In Him we have a perfect hope.
__ Hebrews 11
Sovereign Lord, what does it mean for us to live by faith? How can we live based on those things that are unseen? Convince our hearts about the reality of Your existence and the certainty of all Your great promises. Thank You for the people of faith that You have given to us in the history of salvation. We look forward to the city that You have promised. We live our lives here as those who are yet away from home. We will not be satisfied with any country here below. We want our homeland, for we are Your people. Help us to speak words of blessing to others based on the faith that we have in the truth that You have announced in Your Word. Make us willing to even suffer now, for we look for the reward that will be revealed at just the right time. Our lives ahead of us here below are largely unknown to us. We trust You through it all. We look to the day of certainty beyond this age of questioning. You will reveal the sons of God at just the right time as You have promised. Until that new day dawns, we will live by faith.
