HELPFUL LINKS

Blacknall Worship from Home
September 20, 2020

Invocation

Prepare us, Lord, to sing about Your love: Soften our hearts; quiet our minds; still our hands. Bring peace to our gatherings, wherever they may be. By your Your Holy Spirit, help us to know your kindness to us in Christ Jesus, and Send us forth in His love. We ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Song | “How Great Is Your Love”

No eye has seen and no ear has heard,
and no mind has ever conceived
the glorious things that You have prepared
for everyone who has believed;
You brought us near and You called us Your own,
and made us joint heirs with Your Son.

How high and how wide, how deep and how long,
How sweet and how strong is Your love;
How lavish Your grace, how faithful Your ways,
How great is Your love, O Lord.

Objects of mercy, who should have known wrath,
we’re filled with unspeakable joy,
Riches of wisdom, unsearchable wealth,
and the wonder of knowing Your voice;
You are our treasure and our great reward,
our hope and our glorious King.

Words and Music by Mark Altrogge
©1990 Integrity’s Praise! Music/People of Destiny Music. CCLI #43066

Scripture Reading | Psalm 38

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

Your arrows have pierced me,
and your hand has come down on me.

Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.

My guilt has overwhelmed me
like a burden too heavy to bear.

My wounds fester and are loathsome
because of my sinful folly.

I am bowed down and brought very low;
all day long I go about mourning.

My back is filled with searing pain;
there is no health in my body.

I am feeble and utterly crushed;
I groan in anguish of heart.

All my longings lie open before you, Lord;
my sighing is not hidden from you.

My heart pounds, my strength fails me;
even the light has gone from my eyes.

My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds;
my neighbors stay far away.

Those who want to kill me set their traps,
those who would harm me talk of my ruin;
all day long they scheme and lie.

I am like the deaf, who cannot hear,
like the mute, who cannot speak;

I have become like one who does not hear,
whose mouth can offer no reply.

Lord, I wait for you;
you will answer, Lord my God.

For I said, “Do not let them gloat
or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.”

For I am about to fall,
and my pain is ever with me.

I confess my iniquity;
I am troubled by my sin.

Many have become my enemies without cause;
those who hate me without reason are numerous.

Those who repay my good with evil
lodge accusations against me,
though I seek only to do what is good.

Lord, do not forsake me;
do not be far from me, my God.

Come quickly to help me,
my Lord and my Savior.

Song | “O Come to Me, the Master Said”

O come to Me, the Master said, My Father knows your need;
And I shall be, the Master said, your bread of life indeed.
By faith in Him we live and grow and share the broken bread,
And all His love and goodness know, for so the Master said.

Abide in Me, the Master said, the true and living vine;
My life shall be, the Master said, poured out for you as wine.
His body to the cross He gave, His blood He freely shed,
Who came in love to seek and save, for so the Master said.

Believe in Me, the Master said, for I have called you friends,
And yours shall be, the Master said, the life that never ends.
And so, with sin and sorrow past, when death itself is dead,
The Lord shall raise us up at last, for so the Master said.
And so, with sin and sorrow past, when death itself is dead,
The Lord shall raise us up at last, for so the Master said.

Words by Timothy Dudley-Smith, 1987. English folk tune.

Call to Confession

Every week we confess our sins together.

Youth, have you ever wondered why the grown ups still need to confess their sins their sins each week, even after a lifetime of following Jesus?! We confess our sins at eight and twenty-eight and still at eighty! Why? Because growing up in Christ is different than becoming a grown up.

Being a mature Christian doesn’t mean that you are ready “to go out on your own,” no longer in need of God’s forgiveness. No, Christian maturity comes with a growing awareness of our need of God’s mercy and a deepening trust that God forgives. In our earthly pilgrimage we will never outgrow confession, but may we become ever more ready to say with Psalmist, “Lord, Come quickly to help me.” Let us confess our sins.

Prayer of Confession

Lord, the Psalm speaks of burdens that we bear and guilt that overwhelms, strength that fails us, and being bowed down and brought low. Some of us feel that this morning, and some of us don’t. However we feel, we are in need of your mercy. We are deadened by sin, revive us with Your grace. Forgive us for our disastrous attempts at independence, which harden our hearts towards You and our neighbors. Show us our need for mercy and the riches of your grace in Christ. By Your Holy Spirit, grow us up into the life of the risen Lord. In His name we pray, Amen.

Assurance of Pardon

“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions...” (Eph. 2:4-5). In Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.

Passing the Peace

May the peace of the Lord be with you.
Response: And also with you

Affirmation of Faith | Apostles Creed

We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. We believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen.

Children’s Blessing

Psalm 100

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
2     Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Children’s Worship

If you would like to receive the Children’s Worship video email, please contact Beth Solie.

Proclamation of the Word | Pastor David Dunderdale

The sermon is provided above in video and audio format.

Ephesians 2:1-10

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Song of Response | “We Who Once Were Dead”

We who once were dead
Now live, fully knowing
Jesus as our head.
Life is overflowing
When He breaks the bread.

We were lost in night,
But You sought and found us.
Give us strength to fight;
Death is all around us.
Jesus, be our light.

He became our bread;
Jesus died to save us.
On Him we are fed,
Eating what He gave us,
Rising from the dead.

Jesus, You were dead,
But You rose, and living,
Made Yourself our bread,
In Your goodness giving
Life though we were dead.

Presenting Our Gifts | Online Giving

You are invited to respond to God’s Word by giving to the mission God has called us to at Blacknall. Your financial giving includes support of Blacknall missionaries 'Ale and Lynn VanderWoude 'Aho, with YWAM in the South Pacific nation of Tonga.

Prayers of Thanksgiving & Intercession | Prayer Requests

Lord, you are rich in mercy and great in love.

Your grace is the story of the ages, and we marvel that you have given us the role of “God’s handiwork.” Help us to play our part.

We give you thanks for your kindness to us in Christ Jesus. As we look back on this week, we recognize many instances of your continued mercy and kindness. We offer you prayers of thanksgiving, with those with whom we are gathered, or on behalf of those brothers and sisters whom we know and love (groups and individuals may supply specific prayers of thanksgiving).

We bring to you our concerns, for ourselves and for our families, for Your body at Blacknall and the church throughout the world, and we pray for the world, which You made and You love.

We pray especially for those enduring illness and experiencing grief (You may add your own intercessions).

We pray for those in sorrow and despair ( You may add your own intercessions).

We pray for those who know scarcity and need your provision (You may add your own intercessions).

We raise our voices and cry out with those who are afflicted by the Coronavirus and its many, wide ranging consequences, the ongoing effects of racial inequality, and the wildfires raging in the West.

Gracious Lord, help us: Restrain the virus. Bring justice. Stop the fires. We dare not keep silent, Lord, nor fail to look to You for help. Keep us fervent in prayer, and move us in those good works which you have prepared for us to do.

Yours is the Kingdom and the glory. Together we pray…

Our Father...

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power, and the glory, forever.
Amen.

Benediction

Song | “I Will Praise Him, Still”

When the morning falls on the farthest hill,
I will sing His name, I will praise Him, still.
When the dark trials come and my heart is filled
With the weight of doubt, I will praise Him, still.

For the Lord, our God, He is strong to save
From the arms of death, from the deepest grave.
And He gave us life in His perfect will;
And by His good grace I will praise Him, still.

When my days are bright and my cup is filled
With all happiness, I will praise Him, still;
And when suffering in this world, until
You set all things right, I will praise You, still!