ORDER OF WORSHIP:
We Worship The God Of Joy
3rd Week of Advent
Welcome
Lighting of the Advent Candle
Song of Praise “Is He Worthy”
Call to Worship Psalm 21:1-7
Song of Praise “O Come All Ye Faithful”
Confession of Faith Isaiah 55:12
Song of Praise “Yet Not I But Through Christ In Me”
Prayer of Adoration
Greet One Another
Video Spotlight
Reception of New Member Becky Drew
Prayer of Intercession
Giving of God’s Tithe and Our Offerings
Song of Preparation “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen”
Scripture Reading John 20:24-31
Dismiss Children
Sermon “Encountering Jesus This Christmas: Thomas’ Encounter” Craig Swartz
Prayer of Commitment
Song of Response “Joy To The World”
Benediction
SERMON NOTES:
John 1:1-5; 14
Ernest Agyemang Yeboah:
“When you courageously believe in the power of doubt instead of the power of God, you much see the works of doubt and least see the works of God”
- THE WORD TO ETERNAL
Dallas Willard:
“Let’s remember that Jesus didn’t leave Thomas to suffer without the blessing of faith and confidence; he gave him the evidence he required.
That is typical of Jesus’s approach to doubt; he responded to honest doubters in the way he knew best, the way that would help them to move from doubt to knowledge.”
Romans 5:20
Psalm 16:2
J.C. Ryle writes:
“Forever let us bless God that the Deity of our Lord is taught everywhere in the Scriptures, and stands on evidence that can never be overthrown. Above all, let us daily repose our sinful selves on Christ with undoubting confidence, as one that is perfect God as well as perfect man. He is man, and therefore can be touched with the felling of our infirmities. He is God, and therefore ‘is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by him.’”
2. THE WORD UNWAVERING
Galatians 4:4-5
Philip Brooks:
“The trouble is that I’m in a hurry, but God isn’t!”
Thomas A Kempis:
“He deserves not the name of patient who is only willing to suffer as much as he thinks proper, and for whom he pleases. The truly patient man asks (nothing) from whom he suffers, (whether) his superior, his equal, or his inferior… But from whomever, or how much, or how often wrong is done to him, he accepts it all as from the hand of God, and counts it gain!”
3. THE WORD UNCONDITIONAL
Leon Morris:
“He would not be persuaded by the combined testimony of all the rest of the apostolic band…. He could not understand why all the apostles, sensible men whom he knew well, had accepted it. And no matter how stupid they had been, he was not going to follow their example.”
Bruce Milne:
“Caesar worship is not dead—the false deities are still chanted in our streets, the gods of state and nation, and all the other traditional religions or their amalgam, of New Age and Satanism, and selfism in its multiple forms. In the face of these false claimants we exalt in our worship the one who alone is worthy, ‘our Lord, our God’—Jesus Christ!”
Jonathan Edwards asked:
“What are you afraid of, that you dare not venture your soul upon Christ? Are you afraid that He cannot save you, that He is not strong enough to conquer the enemies of your soul?… Are you afraid that He will not be willing to stoop so low as to take any gracious notice of you?”
Augustine of Hippo:
“My soul is like a house, small for you to enter, but I pray you to enlarge it. It is in ruins, but I ask you to remake it. It contains much that you will not be pleased to see: this I know and do not hide. But who is to rid it of these things? There is no one but you.”