After Pentecost | Wednesday 04 Sep 2024
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening:
O Lord, we pray that your grace
may always precede and follow after us,
that we may continually be given to good works;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
“All these evils come from within
and make a person unclean.”
(Mark 7:23)
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From Psalms: Psalm 106 | “Banks of the Nile” | Kiran Young Wimberly & The McGraths
O Praise the Lord, give thanks, for the Lord our God is good
God’s steadfast love endures fore’er; who can declare your works?
Blessed are the ones who justice seek; who walk in righteous paths
And bless the God who brought them out from the banks of the Nile
For God saved them and delivered them from slavery’s cruel hand
The Lord rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry land
Led them through the deep sea waters, as it were desert sand
And the waters covered over their foes who followed from behind
Then they exchanged God’s glory for an ox in golden cast
They forgot that God their Savior had done great things for them
No longer slaves in Egypt, their foes were buried at sea
Yet they did not trust God to lead them out into the promised land
Though many a time God saved them, their rebellion never ceased
God’s promise they’d forgotten, yet God did hear their cry
God remembered the holy covenant, and showed compassion and love
May we ever bless God’s holy name, blessed be the Lord, Amen
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OT Reading: Deuteronomy 4:21-40 (GW)
4:21 The Lord was angry with me because of you. So the Lord your God took an oath that I wouldn’t cross the Jordan River and enter the good land he is giving you as your property. I’m going to die in this land and not cross the Jordan River, but you’re going to go across and take possession of that good land. Be careful that you don’t forget the promise that the Lord your God made to you. Don’t make your own carved idols or statues that represent anything the Lord your God has forbidden. The Lord your God is a raging fire, a God who does not tolerate rivals.
Even when you have children and grandchildren and have grown old in that land, don’t become corrupt and make carved idols or statues that represent anything. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today: If you do this thing that the Lord your God considers evil, making him furious, you will quickly disappear from the land you’re going to possess on the other side of the Jordan River. You won’t live very long there. You’ll be completely wiped out. The Lord will scatter you among the people of the world, and only a few of you will be left among the nations where the Lord will force you to live. There you will worship wooden and stone gods made by human hands. These gods can’t see, hear, eat, or smell.
But if you look for the Lord your God when you are among those nations, you will find him whenever you search for him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you’re in distress and all these things happen to you, then you will finally come back to the Lord your God and obey him. The Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not abandon you, destroy you, or forget the promise to your ancestors that he swore he would keep.
Search the distant past, long before your time. Start from the very day God created people on earth. Search from one end of heaven to the other. Has anything as great as this ever happened before, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Have any ⌞other⌟ people ever heard God speak from a fire and lived? You did! Or has any god ever tried to come and take one nation away from another for himself? The Lord your God used his mighty hand and powerful arm to do this for you in Egypt. He did this using plagues, miraculous signs, amazing things, and war. He did his great and awe-inspiring deeds in front of you.
You were shown these things so that you would know that the Lord is God. There is no other god. He let you hear his voice from heaven so that he could instruct you. He showed you his great fire on earth, and you heard him speak from the column of fire. Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants, he was with you as he brought you out of Egypt by his great power. He forced nations greater and stronger than you out of your way to bring you into their land and give it to you. This land is your own possession today.
Remember today, and never forget that the Lord is God in heaven above and here on earth. There is no other god. Obey his laws and commands which I’m giving you today. Then things will go well for you and your descendants. You will live for a long time in the land. The Lord your God is giving you the land for as long as you live.
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No One Like Our God ~ Lincoln Brewster (music meets heaven)
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NT Reading: Mark 7:9-23 (GW)
7:9 He added, “You have no trouble rejecting the commandments of God in order to keep your own traditions! For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Whoever curses father or mother must be put to death.’ But you say, ‘If a person tells his father or mother that whatever he might have used to help them is corban (that is, an offering to God), he no longer has to do anything for his father or mother.’ Because of your traditions you have destroyed the authority of God’s word. And you do many other things like that.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and try to understand! Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. Let the person who has ears listen!”
When he had left the people and gone home, his disciples asked him about this illustration.
Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand? Don’t you know that whatever goes into a person from the outside can’t make him unclean? It doesn’t go into his thoughts but into his stomach and then into a toilet.” (By saying this, Jesus declared all foods acceptable.) He continued, “It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean. Evil thoughts, sexual sins, stealing, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, cheating, shameless lust, envy, cursing, arrogance, and foolishness come from within a person. All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.”
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Change My Heart Oh God ~ Maranatha! Music ~ Easy Worship Resources
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+ O God, without whose beauty and goodness our souls are unfed, without whose truth our reason withers: Consecrate our lives to your will, giving us such purity of heart, such depth of faith, and such steadfastness of purpose, that in time we may come to think your own thoughts after you; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
Thomas à Kempis
+ Our God, in whom we trust: Strengthen us not to regard overmuch who is for us or who is against us, but to see to it that we be with you in everything we do. Amen.
+ Sovereign Lord: We pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
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- Protect Israel from the fiery darts of the evil one coming from every direction, both within and without.
- Grant your heavenly wisdom to those guiding Israel militarily, politically, and diplomatically;
- Give them hearts to receive, and the courage to do, what’s right in your sight.
- Comfort those who grieve and mourn the loss of loved ones;
- Rebuke those who would use grief for evil purposes.
- Bring swift and certain justice to all those complicit in the October 7th atrocities;
- Deliver the hostages from captivity, and restore their souls.
- Destroy every stronghold of the evil death cult terrorizing the Middle East.
- Strengthen the Messianic communities – Jew and Arab alike – bind them together in love, that they may be a source of help, and healing, and hope;
- Use them in the restoration of your people to their proper place in your Kingdom.
- We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.
+ O God, our heavenly Father, you manifested your love by sending your only-begotten Son into the world, that all might live through him: Pour out your Spirit on your Church, that we may fulfill his command to preach the Gospel to all people. Send forth laborers into your harvest; defend them in all dangers and temptations; and hasten the time when the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in, and faithful Israel shall be saved; through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Closing: FaithandWorship.com | John Birch
The Lord bless us, and preserve us from all evil,
and keep us in eternal life.
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The Peanut Gallery 