No Way to Lose

- CALL TO WORSHIP -

Let us rise and worship the Triune God.

ADORATION

Minister: Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Congregation: And also to you.

SCRIPTURE

Isaiah 6:1–4 “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: The whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” Minister: Lift up your hearts! Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord!

PRAYER

Let us pray! Heavenly Father, you have loved us and sent Jesus to redeem us. Jesus, you have loved us and assumed our nature. You bled for us on a tree, died and rose again to cover our sins and wrapped us in righteousness. Holy Spirit, you have loved us and shown us the light of God in the face of Jesus. God, you are for us, with us and in us. Father, we are gathered here today in worship only because of the triune perfection displayed in Your great salvation.

Almighty God, we worship you now through Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with You, and the Holy Spirit, One Triune God, world without end, and Amen.

HYMN

Come, Thou Almighty King..............................331

- CONFESSION -

Please sit.

EXHORTATION (Samuel Davidson)

There is a verse in Romans 8 that people take too individualistically. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28) But part of the working out of this verse means that some people will be killed by the sword, some will die in accidents, in famines, some by cancer. Some will experience great persecution for the church. If this verse is to be understood individualistically then you must wait for some vague future time in this life when all that is wrong in your own personal life will be put right. Now it is possible that God may take away your back pain in this very life. You should pray for and anticipate that! But God calls you to say, like Daniel’s friends, even if He doesn’t answer me just yet, I am well supplied and not bowing to idols. And because of Romans 8:28, you can be sure that your pain, your suffering and sorrow is building up the church. You can say with the apostle, “Death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Cor 4:12) All things work together for the total, final good of God’s people. Therefore, get ready for the fight and cast off all the bitterness and dissatisfied murmuring that you are tempted to give in to. You are a Christian. You can afford to die. So let sorrows come. You can handle them. You’re a child of the resurrection. Die each day that others might live.

But there is more! When you have endured till the end, Christ says that He will give you a white stone with a new name, known only to you who are to receive it (Rev 2:17). That reward will be only for you. So as you suffer now, in silence, alone, without honor or recognition know that the Lord is watching, using your suffering to build His church and in every stroke with which He strikes you, eagerly etching the name on that stone that He will give to you and you alone.

This reminds us of our need to confess our sins so let us prepare to do so as we sing..

PSALM

Psalm 15..............................................................30

CONFESSION OF SIN

So, as you are able please kneel in confession before God

Isaiah 6:5 “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Father, we confess that we have been slow to learn of Christ in His sufferings, we have been reluctant to follow Him and been afraid to bear His cross. We confess that we have been unwilling to overcome evil with good but have given in to the lies of the enemy considering the pleasures of sin greater riches that the reproaches of Christ. Forgive us these sins for the sake of your Son, our assurance and our hope of resurrection, through whom alone we can have the courage to endure suffering and death.

Lord, You have called Your church to truth in the inward parts, so we confess our individual sins to you now, Selah. We do this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen!

ASSURANCE OF PARDON

Please rise for the assurance of pardon! Isaiah 6:5 “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Christian, you can afford to die each day for the sake of others for..

Minister: Your sins are forgiven through Christ. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

CONFESSION OF FAITH

Having confessed our sins, let us now confess our common faith in the words of the Nicene’ creed, saying, Minister: Christian, what do you believe? Congregation: I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, / Maker of heaven and earth, / and of all things visible and invisible. / And in one Lord Jesus Christ, / the only-begotten Son of God, / begotten of the Father before all worlds; / God of God, / Light of Light, / very God of very God; / begotten, not made, / being of one substance with the Father, / by whom all things were made. / Who, for us men and for our salvation, / came down from heaven, / and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the virgin Mary, / and was made man; / and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; / He suffered and was buried; / and the third day He rose again, / according to the Scriptures; / and ascended into heaven, / and sits on the right hand of the Father; / and He shall come again, with glory, / to judge the quick and the dead; / whose kingdom shall have no end. / And I believe in the Holy Ghost, / the Lord and Giver of Life; / who proceeds from the Father and the Son; / who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified; / who spoke by the prophets. / And I believe one holy catholic and apostolic Church. / I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; / and I look for the resurrection of the dead, / and the life of the world to come. / Amen.

Responsive Reading

Minister: O God, the heathen have come into Your inheritance;

Congregation: Your holy temple they have defiled.

Minister: We have become a reproach to our neighbors,

Congregation: A scorn and derision to those who are around us.

Minister: How long, Lord? Will You be angry for ever?

Congregation: Shall Your jealousy burn like fire?

Minister: Let Your tender mercies speedily come to us:

Congregation: For we are brought very low.

Minister: Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name:

Congregation: And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

HYMN

I Bind unto Myself Today...................518 (vv. 1-5)

- CONSECRATION -

SCRIPTURE READING

( Joe Farley)

Isaiah 63:7–14 AV 1873

I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the Lord, According to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, And the great goodness towards the house of Israel, Which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, And according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses. For he said, Surely they are my people, Children that will not lie: So he was their Saviour. In all their affliction he was afflicted, And the angel of his presence saved them: In his love and in his pity he redeemed them; And he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit: Therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them. Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, Dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, As a horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, The Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: So didst thou lead thy people, To make thyself a glorious name.

Romans 8:12–17 AV 1873

Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

Reader: The Word of the Lord. Congregation: Thanks be to God!

HYMN

Please sit.

The Spacious Firmament on High......................345

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER

HYMN

Please stand. Psalm 127........................................................247

SERMON

No Way to Lose...........................Aaron Youngren

PRAYER

Ending with The Lord’s Prayer…

OFFERTORY

Please stand. Holy, Holy, Holy!...................................................317 Lord, all things come from you, and of your own do we give you, Almighty God, creator of the world, we ask you to accept these offerings for the glory of your name and building up of your church, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- COMMUNION -

Please sit.

MEDITATION

Jesus told those coming after Him for food that unless they eat His flesh and drink His blood, they have no life in them. His flesh is true food. His blood is true drink. Many stumbled at this saying of His and no longer followed Him. Why did they stumble? What is so hard to understand about the eating and drinking of the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, consider the libel thrown at the early Christians that they were cannibals and that they ate the one they worshipped. If the Roman Catholic view of the supper is true, then that libel is true as well. But the libel is not true. We are not cannibals. What you are about to eat here really is bread and wine.

And yet these signs like the words of the preacher, call you to participate in Christ. They are not to be looked at but looked through. Dwelling on the physical properties of the sermon notes in your bulletin will not edify your soul. You must look through the printed word to what is being said about Christ. Likewise, bread as bread will not edify you. You must look through it to Christ. And as Lewis reminds us, we cannot go on looking through forever. "The whole point of seeing through something is to see something through it. It is good that the window should be transparent, because the street or garden beyond it is opaque." So, apply that to this bread and this wine. Compared to Jesus, this bread and wine is like a transparent window. The thing that it points us to is necessarily more opaque than itself. Therefore, in whatever mysterious way we partake in Christ's flesh ascended right now before God the Father, we eat—truly eat more solid food and more solid drink in this meal than anywhere else in this world. Where else could you go? No other table in creation can give you life like this one. His flesh is food indeed and His blood is drink indeed. So come and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Let us pray. Father, you have promised in Your Word the special presence of Your Son in this meal before us. Give us the sight to read not only our Bible but also this bread and wine rightly that in reading these visible words we might perceive and partake in the same Christ taught to us in the Scriptures. In His holy name we pray, Amen.

THE BREAD

For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he broke it:

My Heart Has Found a Ready Theme....................89 And when Jesus had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

THE WINE

I Bind unto Myself Today......................518 (vv. 6-9)

After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

- COMMISSIONING -

Please stand.

CLOSING DOXOLOGY

The congregation may raise hands.

CHARGE AND BENEDICTION

2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work. Amen.