After Pentecost | Monday 09 Sep 2024
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening:
O Lord God, grant your people grace
to withstand the temptations of
the world, the flesh, and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you,
the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
We must focus on Jesus,
the source and goal of our faith.
(Hebrews 12:2)
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From Psalms: Psalm 73 | Psalms Project at Wasilla Bible Church.
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OT Reading: Proverbs 8:32-9:6 (GW)
Wisdom as Lifegiver
8:32 “Now, sons, listen to me.
Blessed are those who follow my ways.
Listen to discipline, and become wise.
Do not leave my ways.
Blessed is the person who listens to me,
watches at my door day after day,
and waits by my doorposts.
Whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord.
Whoever sins against me harms himself.
All those who hate me love death.”
Wisdom Hosts a Banquet
9:1 Wisdom has built her house.
She has carved out her seven pillars.
She has prepared her meat.
She has mixed her wine.
She has set her table.
She has sent out her servant girls.
She calls from the highest places in the city,
“Whoever is gullible turn in here!”
She says to a person without sense,
“Come, eat my bread,
and drink the wine I have mixed.
Stop being gullible and live.
Start traveling the road to understanding.”
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Seeking Wisdom By Colton Kelley (Lyric Video)
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NT Reading: Hebrews 11:29-12:2 (GW)
11:29 Faith caused the people to go through the Red Sea as if it were dry land. The Egyptians also tried this, but they drowned.
Faith caused the walls of Jericho to fall after the Israelites marched around them for seven days.
Faith led the prostitute Rahab to welcome the spies as friends. She was not killed with those who refused to obey God.
What more should I say? I don’t have enough time to tell you about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets. Through faith they conquered kingdoms, did what God approved, and received what God had promised. They shut the mouths of lions, put out raging fires, and escaped death. They found strength when they were weak. They were powerful in battle and defeated other armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. Other believers were brutally tortured but refused to be released so that they might gain eternal life. Some were made fun of and whipped, and some were chained and put in prison. Some were stoned to death, sawed in half, and killed with swords. Some wore the skins of sheep and goats. Some were poor, abused, and mistreated. The world didn’t deserve these good people. Some wandered around in deserts and mountains and lived in caves and holes in the ground.
All these people were known for their faith, but none of them received what God had promised. God planned to give us something very special so that we would gain eternal life with them.
Faith Directs Our Lives
12:1 Since we are surrounded by so many examples ⌞of faith⌟, we must get rid of everything that slows us down, especially sin that distracts us. We must run the race that lies ahead of us and never give up. We must focus on Jesus, the source and goal of our faith. He saw the joy ahead of him, so he endured death on the cross and ignored the disgrace it brought him. Now he holds the honored position—the one next to God the Father on the heavenly throne.
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Turn Your Eyes – Sovereign Grace // Rachel Overd
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+ Most loving Father, you will us to give thanks for all things, to dread nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on the One who cares for us. Preserve us from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, and grant that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested unto us in your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
+ Go before us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, through your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. 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.
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.
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.
Jesus replied, “It’s not right to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
2:14 For example, whenever non-Jews who don’t have the laws in Moses’ Teachings do by nature the things that those laws contain, they are a law to themselves even though they don’t have any of those laws. They show that some requirements found in Moses’ Teachings are written in their hearts. Their consciences speak to them. Their thoughts accuse them on one occasion and defend them on another. This happens as they face the day when God, through Christ Jesus, will judge people’s secret thoughts. He will use the Good News that I am spreading to make that judgment.
Since you are stubborn and don’t want to change the way you think and act, you are adding to the anger that God will have against you on that day when God vents his anger. At that time God will reveal that his decisions are fair. He will pay all people back for what they have done. He will give everlasting life to those who search for glory, honor, and immortality by persisting in doing what is good. But he will bring anger and fury on those who, in selfish pride, refuse to believe the truth and who follow what is wrong. There will be suffering and distress for every person who does evil, for Jews first and Greeks as well. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for every person who does what is good, for Jews first and Greeks as well. God does not play favorites.
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.”
The Peanut Gallery 