After Pentecost | Friday 11 Oct 2024
+ In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Opening:
Keep, O Lord,
your household the Church in continual godliness,
that through your protection
it may be free from all adversities,
and devoutly serve you in good works,
to the glory of your Name;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever. Amen.
“We must make every effort to enter that place of rest.”
(Hebrews 4:11)
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From Psalms: Psalm 90 // From Everlasting (Psalm 90) – Sovereign Grace Music
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OT Reading: Deuteronomy 5:22-33 (GW)
5:22 These are the commandments the Lord spoke to your whole assembly on the mountain. He spoke in a loud voice from the fire, the cloud, and the gloomy darkness. Then he stopped speaking. He wrote the commandments on two stone tablets and gave them to me.
But when you heard the voice coming from the darkness and saw the mountain blazing with fire, all the leaders and heads of your tribes came to me. You said, “The Lord our God has let us see how great and glorious he is. We’ve heard his voice come from the fire. Today we’ve seen that people can live even if God speaks to them. Why should we die? This great fire will consume us! If we continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, we’ll die! Who has ever heard the voice of the living God speak from a fire, as we did, and lived? ⌞Moses,⌟ go and listen to everything that the Lord our God says. Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We’ll listen and obey.”
When the Lord heard the words that you spoke to me, he said, “I have heard what these people said to you. Everything they said was good. If only they would fear me and obey all my commandments as long as they live! Then things would go well for them and their children forever.
“Tell the people to go back to their tents. But you stay here with me. I will give you all the commands, laws, and rules that you must teach them to obey in the land which I’m giving them to possess.”
So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you. Never stop living this way. Follow all the directions the Lord your God has given you. Then you will continue to live, life will go well for you, and you will live for a long time in the land that you are going to possess.
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Trust and Obey // Vagle Brothers
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NT Reading: Hebrews 4:1-11 (GW)
We Will Enter God’s Place of Rest
4:1 God’s promise that we may enter his place of rest still stands. We are afraid that some of you think you won’t enter his place of rest. We have heard the same Good News that your ancestors heard. But the message didn’t help those who heard it in the past because they didn’t believe.
We who believe are entering that place of rest. As God said, “So I angrily took a solemn oath that they would never enter my place of rest.” God said this even though he had finished his work when he created the world. Somewhere in Scripture God has said this about the seventh day: “On the seventh day God rested from all his work.”
God also said in the same passage, “They will never enter my place of rest.” However, some people enter that place of rest. Those who heard the Good News in the past did not enter God’s place of rest because they did not obey God. So God set another day. That day is today. Many years after ⌞your ancestors failed to enter that place of rest⌟ God spoke about it through David in the passage already quoted: “If you hear God speak today, don’t be stubborn.” If Joshua had given the people rest, God would not have spoken about another day. Therefore, a time of eternal rest exists for God’s people. Those who entered his place of rest also rest from their work as God did from his.
So we must make every effort to enter that place of rest. Then no one will be lost by following the example of those who refused to obey.
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The Sabbath Song – Derrol Sawyer / Mabe line
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O God of peace, who has taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be our strength: Lift us into your presence, by the might of your Spirit, where we may be still and know that You are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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.
Sovereign Lord: We pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
+ Do what only you can do to make your faithful people the blessing promised to every family on earth.
+ Protect them from the assaults of the evil one, coming from every direction and in every form.
+ Grant your heavenly wisdom to Israel’s leadership; give them the courage to do what’s right in your sight.
+ Comfort all those who mourn the loss of loved ones; deliver the hostages from captivity and restore their souls.
+ Destroy every stronghold and every expression of the evil death cult terrorizing the Middle East.
+ Protect the Israel Defense Forces and every soldier engaged in their mission to root out this evil.
+ Strengthen the Messianic communities; use them to restore your faithful people to their proper place in your kingdom.
+ Unify your faithful people around your promise to Abraham – to bless every family on earth through them.
+ Intervene in the Middle East in ways that only you can; protect the innocent and punish the guilty, that all may live in peace.
We ask in Jesus’ name.
Heavenly Father, you have promised to hear what we ask in the Name of your Son: Accept and fulfill our petitions, we pray, not as we ask in our ignorance, nor as we deserve in our sinfulness, but as you know and love us in 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.
Be careful, brothers and sisters, that none of you ever develop a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. Encourage each other every day while you have the opportunity. If you do this, none of you will be deceived by sin and become stubborn. After all, we will remain Christ’s partners only if we continue to hold on to our original confidence until the end.
5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Never commit adultery.’ But I can guarantee that whoever looks with lust at a woman has already committed adultery in his heart.
I (not the Lord) say to the rest of you: If any Christian man is married to a woman who is an unbeliever, and she is willing to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any Christian woman is married to a man who is an unbeliever, and he is willing to live with her, she should not divorce her husband. Actually, the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and an unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband. Otherwise, their children would be unacceptable ⌞to God⌟, but now they are acceptable to him. But if the unbelieving partners leave, let them go. Under these circumstances a Christian man or Christian woman is not bound ⌞by a marriage vow⌟. God has called you to live in peace. How do you as a wife know whether you will save your husband? How do you as a husband know whether you will save your wife?
Husbands and wives should satisfy each other’s ⌞sexual⌟ needs. A wife doesn’t have authority over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband doesn’t have authority over his own body, but his wife does.
The Peanut Gallery 