Formidable and Formative — James 3:1-12

Pianist: Joshua Katreeb

Welcome:

“The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown.”” (Proverbs 4:7–9, ESV)

Embrace the source of wisdom: God the Father, Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Come and receive honor and a garland of grace, a beautiful crown from the Lord. Welcome.

Announcements:

Lunch today

Prayer on Tuesday

Amanda Yacoub Baby Shower - Next Sunday, 31st @ 3 P.M.

We want to share an important update with you regarding Craig and his service as an elder at Covenant of Grace.

Craig has served faithfully on this Session since the beginning of our church. His steady care for this congregation — the wisdom, the encouragement, the listening ear, the calming presence, the quiet labor behind the scenes — is a remarkable gift to this body. We are deeply thankful for the way he has loved and served Christ's church.

And Scripture teaches that a man's ministry begins in the home. Like every husband and father, Craig is called to cultivate and care for his marriage and family with diligence and intentionality. All of us as elders have this same work to do — and there are seasons when that work is easier and seasons when it's harder, seasons when the fruit is evident and seasons when it isn't. That is the nature of the Christian life and of life together.

After prayerful conversation, Craig and the Session have agreed that the wisest and healthiest step in this season is for him to transition off the Session so he can devote focused time and energy to his marriage and family.

To be clear, this is not a reflection on the quality of Craig's service or his love for the church. Rather, it is an example of the kind of humility and wisdom we hope to embody as Christians and as leaders — recognizing when attention is especially needed at home and responding accordingly.

We are grateful for him, and proud of the kind of man who, when it's pointed out, turns toward home.

Craig is not leaving the church. He and his family remain a loved and important part of Covenant of Grace, and you'll still see them here each Lord's Day.

Let me take a second to pray for Craig, for his family, and for our Session as we continue to seek to shepherd Christ's church faithfully together.

New shepherding updates

New Elders

Your shepherding elder will be reaching out to you within the next week or so. If you are not contacted, your shepherding elder will remain the same.

For those who are ready to move forward with membership — especially after completing our recent Sunday School series on the church — you will be assigned a shepherding elder after joining. Please let one of the elders know if you would like to pursue membership.

Hymn of preparation:

†CALL TO WORSHIP Psalm 50:5, 9:1-2

Pastor Austin Prince

Minister: Hear the call of the Lord: “Gather to me my faithful ones, who made a covenant with me by sacrifice!”

Congregation: We will give thanks to you, O Lord, with our whole heart; we will tell of all your wonderful deeds. We will be glad and exult in you; we will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You are the Lord; Creator, Sustainer, and the Ruler of all things. You are our Lord, the God who gave His own Son for our salvation; who has called us out of darkness and into your marvelous light. Come, O God, inhabit the praises of your people. Send the Spirit that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. Receive our worship, as you receive our prayer.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #216

“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

†CONFESSION OF SIN AND ASSURANCE OF PARDON

based on Isaiah 5:15-16; 1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Peter 2:24

Our hearts are strengthened by grace. One of the ways God strengthens us is through the grace of honest confession and fresh sight of forgiveness. We come now to be renewed by the mercy of Christ. We are invited to draw near to the throne of grace with confidence, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is faithful. Let us come now, confessing our sins and receiving mercy and help in our time of need.

Minister: Man is humbled, and each one is brought low, and the eyes of the haughty are brought low. But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Congregation: Forgive us our sins, O Lord. Forgive us the sins of our youth and the sins of our age, the sins of our hearts and the sins of our hands. Forgive our secret sins and our open sins, our careless sins and our deliberate sins. Forgive the sins we have done to please ourselves, and the sins we have done to please others. Forgive us the sins we know and the sins we know not. Forgive them, O Lord. Forgive them all, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Minister: Hear the assurance of the gospel: The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Job 12:1-13:12

Elder John Hoffer

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

PASTORAL 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.

†HYMN OF PREPARATION #444

“Come to the Waters”

SERMON James 3:1-12

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Heavenly Father, may you grant us to comprehend your holy Word according to your divine will, that we may learn from it to put all our confidence in you alone, and withdraw it from all other creatures; moreover, that also our old man with all his lusts may be crucified more and more each day, and that we may offer ourselves to you as a living sacrifice, to the glory of your holy name and to the edification of our neighbor, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. —Zacharias Ursinus

TEXT James 3:1-12

James 3:1–12 ESV

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2 For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

AFTER SCRIPTURE

Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

INTRO

†PSALM OF RESPONSE #100B

“All People That on Earth Do Dwell”

†THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

Congregation is seated. Tell them to turn to creed (851) in Trinity Hymnal.

INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE

Table sermon:

Think of where this whole story began.

In the garden, a voice said, “Take and eat,” and behind those words stood the lie that death could become life apart from God.

The serpent spoke as a murderer from the beginning.

But today, at this table, hear another voice speak the same words:

“Take and eat.”

There is no lie here. No deception. No humiliation.

These words are spoken in love—and the love is not merely in the words. The love is in a body broken for you and blood shed for you.

The voice that speaks at this table is the voice of the one who did not come to take your life, but to give his own in place of yours.

So come. Take and eat. And know that the word spoken over you here is true.

Christ does not feed you with lies.

He feeds you with himself.

Eat and be satisfied.

No matter how serious about obedience we become, no one comes to this table as a worthy recipient of God's gifts. We strive to live after Christ's holy way, but in ourselves we are entirely unworthy to receive what is offered here. Yet we come. We come because as we repent of that unworthiness, we trust by God's grace that we are welcomed on account of Christ's righteousness and not our own.

This table welcomes all who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. If you do not repent of your sin, you must not come. If you do not trust in Christ alone for your righteousness, you must not come. But if you confess your sin and rest in Christ, this table is for you. Come, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Let's confess that faith together. Christians, what do you believe?

CONFESSION OF FAITH

The Apostles Creed p. 851

THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION 1 Corinthians 11:23–26

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, "This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me." For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: The body of the Lord, broken for you, take and eat.

The blood of the Lord, shed for the forgiveness of sins. Take and drink.

PRAYER

Thank you that at this table you do not feed us with empty promises, but with Christ himself—crucified, risen, and sufficient for sinners.

Forgive us for the ways our mouths have sinned against you and against one another. Teach us by your Spirit to speak truthfully, graciously, courageously, and in love.

Let the words we speak this week in our homes, in our church, and in our hearts be governed more and more by the gospel we have received here.

And fix our hope on the day when every redeemed tongue will praise you without sin forever.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

†OUR RESPONSE

“Come, Thou Almighty King”

To the great one in three eternal praises be,

hence evermore. His sovereign majesty

may we in glory see, and to eternity love and adore.

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24