Welcome to Grace. Who here feels like you’ve got it all figured out and all together this morning. Nobody? You’re in the right place. We’re gathered to worship and ask help from the only One who does have it all figured out and together.
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be glory forever. Amen.
ROMANS 11:33-36
God’s wisdom is His power to see AND His inclination to choose the best and highest goal, TOGETHER WITH the surest means of attaining it.
J. I. PACKER
What an awesome and assuring combination. Not only does God KNOW the best goals and how best to bring those about… He is also INCLINED TO CHOOSE what is best and to use the surest means of getting there. “Oh, the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God!” Let’s stand and sing.
Song: You Are Good
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil, for you are with me;
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
PSALM 23
Song: Now and Forever
Response of Praise and Thanks
Lord, our cups overflow with your goodness and mercy because of Jesus. Overflowing. All the days of our lives. Forever. We praise you, Heavenly Father, for knowing how to give good gifts to Your children. We thank you for adopting us as Your children in the first place. Thank you, Jesus, for becoming the Lamb who was slain so that we could become the sheep of your hand. Help us this morning to know how secure we are in those hands. We love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Greeting
Call to Confession
“Surely goodness shall follow me all the days of my life.” Surely. All. God sees the best and highest goals TOGETHER WITH the surest means of attaining them. When God told Isaiah He was planning to use Cyrus the Great - the pagan Emperor of Persia - as His “anointed one” to send Israel back home to Jerusalem from exile, Isaiah had His doubts. Listen to God’s response:
Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’? Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’”
Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and the one who formed him: “Ask me of things to come; will you command me concerning my children and the work of my hands? I made the earth and created man on it; it was my hands that stretched out the heavens, and I commanded all their host.
ISAIAH 45:9-12
Prayer of Confession
Lord, we have said in a hundred ways:
We know better.
What have You done?
What are You doing?
Why this? Why now? Why not?
Where are the handles?! Surely, my life is supposed to have handles!
We have doubted Your goodness.
We have been skeptics of Your love.
We have been critics of Your plans and purposes.
We have rolled our eyes at Your wisdom.
You are perfectly wise
and our complaining,
our fretting,
our resentment,
our envy,
our disobedience to Your clear commands
all say in so many words:
“You don’t know what you’re doing. I know better.”
We confess our ignorance and our arrogance
and ask You to help us - by Your Spirit -
to settle back down again into your sure hands.
Thank You, Jesus, for dying for God-critics like us.
Amen.
Song: Why Sinks My Weak, Downheartened Mind?
Assurance
How are these for “healing words that we are God’s and we are blest”?
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
Nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
So great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
As far as the east is from the west,
So far does he remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
So the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.
For he knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
PSALM 103:8, 10-14
Offering Meditation and Prayer
Offering Music: Be Still My Soul (instrumental, piano)
Sermon (Ralph Wagenet)
Closing Song: Be Still My Soul
Benediction
No comments:
Post a Comment