ORDER OF WORSHIP:
We Worship God Who Values All Life
Welcome
Song of Praise “Come People of the Risen King”
Call to Worship Psalm 34:1-6
Song of Praise “Praise To The Lord The Almighty”
Confession of Faith (Freedom) from Our World Belongs To God
Song of Praise “Revelation Song”
Prayer of Adoration
Greet One Another
Confession of Sin
Assurance of Pardon from Psalm 32
Prayer of Intercession
Giving of God’s Tithe and Our Offerings
Song of Preparation “Is He Worthy”
Scripture Reading Psalm 139:1-18
Sermon “The Gospel &Culture: The Gospel of Life” Craig Swartz
Prayer of Commitment
Song of Response “Death Was Arrested”
Benediction
SERMON NOTES:
Pastor from church In Minneapolis, Minnesota:
“It’s been quite a month in Minneapolis. One month ago George Floyd was killed. Shock waves went through our city and neighborhood. They quickly spread across the nation and the world. Yet here in Minneapolis the aftershocks have not subsided. Burned and destroyed businesses everywhere, calls to defund the police were followed this past month with 1600 calls to police of gunfire. In our home the question a dozen times a day is, “Were those gunshots?” A pastor friend and his wife had a bullet go through their wall, which prompted them to move. Homeless encampments started to spread and grow three blocks from our church. Hundreds of tents have gone up. It is a less than ideal situation for any involved. So many challenges emerge with this; drug dealing, prostitution, needles left scattered, police morale has never been lower. At the same time shootings have trended much higher. This week fifty youth were practicing football when gunfire broke out. This week one of our church member’s neighbors was carjacked at gunpoint. Which brings us to yesterday. Yesterday my friend and neighbor told his children, “Don’t go outside. There’s been too much shooting.” A few hours later, my daughter frantically called and texted me to say there had been an accident in front of our house and then a shooting. Two cars had collided and one person got out and shot the driver of the other vehicle. As my daughters went out after hearing the accident, the gunshot occurred, and the driver stumbled out with blood pulsing out of his arm. They rushed in to get my wife. Police and ambulance were quick to the scene as the man lay bleeding on our front step with his head on our blue towel. The last 24 hours have been a time of processing and praying. Trauma affects each person and family member differently. It affects children and families and pastors. This morning on my front porch all was quiet and I read from Psalm 93: The Lord reigns. Indeed He does. On our block, in our city, and in our nation, the floods have lifted up and yet His throne is established. He rules, He reigns, with Christ our solid Rock we are safe everywhere and at all times. Please pray for the man who was shot, and for our family, our church, and our city. Pray that His kingdom would come, His will would be done here in Minneapolis as it is in heaven.”
Francis Schaeffer:
“As evangelical Christians, we have tended to relegate art to the very fringe of life. The rest of human life we feel is more important … We have misunderstood the concept of the lordship of Christ over the whole man and the whole of the universe and have not taken to us the riches that the Bible gives us for ourselves, for our lives, and for our culture.”
- GOD US
Psalm 139:1-6
Arthur pink wrote:
“God…knows everything; everything possible, everything actual; all events, all creatures, of the past, the present, and the future. He is perfectly acquainted with every detail in the life of every human being in heaven, in earth, and in hell….Nothing escapes his notice, nothing can be hidden from him, nothing is forgotten by him….He never errs, never changes, never overlooks anything.”
Francis Schaeffer:
“The Bible is clear here: I am to love my neighbor as myself, in the manner needed, in a practical way, in the midst of the fallen world, at my particular point of history.”
Dr. Bartoli:
“In the light of the rising sun, still visible, the sacred name of God shone across the sky, and all hands all over the earth were raised to God. Everywhere in the world—among civilized, cultured races, and among primitive and aboriginal peoples, in the heat of tropical climes and amid Arctic snows—man recognizes a Creator, a God to Whom they may raise their hands in worship and prayer.”
2. GOD US
Psalm 139:7-10
O. Palmer Robertson:
“Often God’s people find themselves severely disturbed because they see no visible power as strong as their enemy’s, but the bible encourages the faithful to assume a strange perspective. They must look at the strength of the enemy as the very source of their own protection, for as God sovereignly raises up powers and brings them down again, He turns the strength of the enemy against itself.”
3. GOD US
Psalm 139:13-16
Derek Kidner:
“The third stanza brings together and carries forward the thought of the first two: God not only sees the invisible and penetrates the inaccessible, but is operative there, the author of every detail of my being.”
4. GOD US
Charles Spurgeon:
“My joy has been put out of the reach of my enemies.”