The Gospel & Culture: The Gospel & Justice Part 2

ORDER OF WORSHIP:

Welcome
Song of Praise  “Indescribable”
Call to Worship (responsive) Psalm 8
Song of Praise  “God All Nature Sings Thy Glory”
Confession of Faith Heidelberg Catechism Q. 26
Song of Praise  “Cornerstone”
Prayer of Adoration
Greet One Another
Ministry Spotlight “Redeemer Women”
Prayer of Intercession
Giving of God’s Tithe and Our Offerings
Song of Preparation  “Holy Spirit”
Scripture Reading Luke 10:25-37
Sermon “The Gospel & Culture: The Gospel &Justice Part 2” Craig Swartz
Prayer of Commitment
Song of Response  “They’ll Know We Are Christians”
Benediction

SERMON NOTES:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“I must admit,” he said, “I have gone through those moments when I was greatly disappointed with the church and what it has done in this period of social change. We must face the fact that in America, the church is still the most segregated major institution. At 11 o’clock on Sunday mornings when we stand and sing, ‘And Christ has no east or west,’ we stand at the most segregated hour of this nation.”

Anonymous:

“I was hungry and you formed a humanities club to discuss my hunger.
Thank you.
I was imprisoned and you crept off quietly to your chapel to pray for my release.
Nice.

I was naked and in your mind you debated the morality of my appearance.
What good did that do?
I was sick and you knelt and thanked God for your health.
But I needed you.

I was homeless and you preached to me of the shelter of the love of God.
I wish you’d taken me home.
I was lonely and you left me alone to pray for me.
Why didn’t you stay?

You seem so holy, so close to God;
but I’m still very hungry, lonely, cold, and still in pain.
Does it matter?”

1. THE  FOR JUSTICE INVOLVEMENT

Luke 10:26

Archbishop William Temple:

“Your religion is what you do with your solitude.”

Luke 10:29

Roman emperor Julian:

 “Christianity has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead.

It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”

2. THE  OF JUSTICE INVOLVEMENT

Jonathan Edwards:

“But Christ loved you, pitied you, greatly laid himself out to relieve you from all that want and misery which you brought on yourself by your own folly. Should we not love others as Christ loved us?”

3. THE  OF JUSTICE INVOLVEMENT

2 Corinthians 5:21

Mother Teresa:

“The biggest disease today is not leprosy, or cancer. It’s the feeling of being uncared for or unwanted, of being deserted and alone. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, and an indifference toward one’s neighbor who may be the victim of poverty or disease or exploited and at the end of his life, left at a roadside.” 

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.”