Worship Online | March 6, 2022

[Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning everyone welcome to first church we're so pleased you've come today on this beautiful sunday morning here in southwest florida we are uh very blessed that you have chosen to come and worship with us on what is the first sunday of the season of lent and also because it's that first sunday our tradition is to have the sacrament of holy communion to share together and that will be the culmination of this service and so we're very thankful that you are a part of it with us and uh let me say a brief word to those of you who are in our sanctuary a reminder that it would be a good time to double check your cell phones so they not go off accidentally and distract people around you secondly you all are welcome to stop by what we call our first stop right after our worship service we've got some refreshments ready for you we'd be happy to serve you at no charge just come and add some coffee and some snacks and say hello to a few people and that is available right across the corridor from the main sanctuary as soon as we're finished with this worship service and let me greet those who are watching us online by our live stream at nine o'clock a.m eastern standard time or whenever you tune in you are very much a part of our congregation today and we welcome you to our time of worship our organ is on the fritz we found out this morning 10 minutes before our 7 30 service was going to begin i don't know if it's the carburetor or the starter or the battery i'm not sure i recommend it we call aaa but but tom didn't think that was a good idea nevertheless tom d'alessio our amazingly versatile keyboardist was able to switch from organ to piano in a matter of no time and he will be playing that uh beautiful instrument which doesn't have quite the volume of the organ but nevertheless he'll be playing for us uh today on that instrument let me talk to you about a few things that are on the near horizon that are coming up soon that you might want to be a part of beginning with tomorrow evening our bonita christian forum will host sarah huckabee sanders former white house press secretary a committed christian who has lived out her faith in some really hot political arenas and she'll have a lot to share i'm sure and those of you who have reserved your free tickets we want to be sure you're here all of the seats have been taken but it is a first-come first-served seating and so it might be a good idea if you're planning to come tomorrow evening to get here about 6 30 and get the seat you want and if you're not able to be here for whatever reason you didn't make a reservation or you prefer to be elsewhere or you are not in southwest florida and would like to watch live stream everyone is welcomed free of charge to tune in that's seven o'clock tomorrow evening you should find inside your first things first the information you can just go to our website you can go to the devoted bonita christian forum website and if you are on our email list uh you would have gotten an email in the last couple days giving you a simple link to go right to uh the uh broadcast of the live stream of the bonita christian forum tomorrow evening so we hope many of you if you can't be here in person we'll be able to watch it looking ahead a little bit we've got some great concerts ahead this next weekend we will be having uh a series of concerts both friday afternoon and friday evening with the sharp family singers they have been here before we love them great harmony a beautiful selection of music that's uh in the afternoon and evening of friday free tickets are available for that then next sunday morning our chancel choir will be accompanied by a full orchestra here on our stage as we will be worshiping god with some incredible traditional church music to praise god and those will be special worship services next sunday morning and then as if that isn't enough next sunday afternoon and evening we will be hosting here in our sanctuary the world-renowned purdue university glee club these young men have amazing harmony and they have a powerful energy and the music they present is wonderful and so both afternoon and evening performances tickets are available for those oh speaking of next weekend it's that wonderful time change we all look forward to when we lose an hour sleep but that will happen next saturday night just giving you a little bit of a heads up uh to pair prepare for that on sunday march the 20th we are excited to be able to celebrate in an evening service 7 p.m sunday march 20th the formal and proper installation of pastor brad rogers as co-pastor with me of this congregation and some breaking news brad received the notice from fuller theological seminary this past week that his dissertation has been approved he is just about complete he will be dr brad rogers in about two weeks so we're very excited about that congratulations brad [Applause] many of you have had the opportunity to look at our art gallery recently with remarkable paintings by joel skoontanis an artist who was here about six weeks ago to tell us about his works and he is back here he'll be actually gathering up and uh taking his uh artwork back to michigan to his gallery uh in this coming week but he's here today and is going to be positioned by our book center many of you have been meaning to get books of his remarkable biblical art and this would be a time not only to pick up one of those books but have him personally sign it for you he will be available there after our worship service today and now we have the opportunity to do something that is a great joy to me as a pastor of this congregation and that is to welcome new sisters and brothers in christ into our fellowship i'm going to call upon our membership coordinator eileen kurtz to introduce to us those who are being received at this service others at other times today eileen tell us who is here and introduce us to our new members i'm happy to introduce susie james right here tom and marilee hornbuckle elaine and bob ackly and patty and steve bash [Applause] let me just say a word to you actually this is my first official word to you as your pastor i just want uh to ask the questions that the constitution of our church requires of all who desire to unite with our congregation first do you believe in jesus christ as your savior and lord do you and second do you promise to be faithful members of this church do you and on behalf of the officers and members of this church on the basis of your profession of faith in christ and your desire to unite with us it is my pleasure to officially welcome you we feel very blessed by your joining us you bring to us gifts and talents and experiences that enrich us all and we are so pleased to have you we also desire that your church experience be meaningful and uplifting and a part of your growth in your faith and in your love for the lord and service to him and so we want to come alongside you we want to wrap our figurative arms around you and welcome you into our church family and oh by the way i'm inviting all of you if you have a few moments to stop by our first stop right after this service and greet them you will recognize our new members by the lovely red boutonnieres that they are wearing today and uh please feel free to say hello welcome them you'll find brief biographies about them and the others who have recently joined our church inside your first things first and so this is a great time for us to formally welcome them may i have a word of prayer for these our newest sisters and brothers in christ thank you heavenly father for these men and women whom you have sovereignly brought to our church having worked in their lives each in an individual and unique way to bring them to this place and we pray your blessing upon them that they might grow to know you more that they might find friendship and belonging in this church and that they might be able to use the gifts and talents you've given them to serve you we commit them to you with thanksgiving in jesus name amen you may be seated well that uh now brings me to explaining to you how we are going to conclude our worship service which is with the sacrament of holy communion utilizing small individual communion kits that i believe you all received as you came in now if we missed you we apologize but we want to be sure to give you one if you desire to receive communion so if you didn't get a kit and would like one we need you to raise your hand anywhere in the sanctuary and we will deliver them to you okay we've got a person up here in the front left would you keep your hand up ushers please come on up we've got a few others anybody on this side who needs a communion kit okay as we make sure everyone is properly served let's find out how to use this thing just in case this is new for you would you watch this short video communion kit you received as you entered on top is the wafer the bread the bottom is the juice to get to the bread be careful make sure you only lift the clear part then wait after we've received the bread when it's time to receive the juice then go ahead and lift the silver part okay got it if you're seated next to a person who is especially gifted with manual dexterity and you're having a little bit of trouble with yours don't hesitate to ask them to assist you but this is how we're going to be sharing together in the sacrament of communion at the end of this service well you probably recognize that that was jeff fox who is not only gifted as a hand model but is also a gifted pianist and singer and jeff is going to lead for us our opening of worship as we listen to this introit how deep the father's love for us let's worship the lord [Music] how deep the father's love for us how vast beyond all measure that he should give his only son to make a wretch his treasure [Music] the father turns his face away [Music] bring many sons to glory [Music] behold [Music] ashamed [Music] it was [Music] his dying breath has brought me life i know that it is [Music] i will not boast in anything no gifts but i will burst into jesus christ his death and resurrection [Music] but this i know with all my heart his wounds have paid [Music] so [Music] thank you jeff it's our hope that communion service will help you to appreciate how deep god's love is for you and now we begin our worship together with a call to worship inviting one another to join together in this time and we will utilize reading responsively ephesians chapter 6. you'll find it in your bulletin you'll also find it in the screens on the screens in front of you be strong in the lord and in his power put on the full armor of god so that when the day of evil comes you may be able to stand your ground stand firm with the breastplate of righteousness to guard your hearts stand firm with the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of god and be strong in the lord and in his mighty power our opening hymn of praise is one that may be new to some of you others of you know it jeff anything you want to say to us about this hope will be an encouragement to you to stand in the power of christ the words we just read that that we have from christ a full armor from which to go out into this world and to be his people and so this is a call to you as a church to arise in that strength and go do his will so i invite you to stand as we sing together oh church around hear the call of christ [Music] lies reaching out to those in darkness [Music] on every side we know the outcome is [Music] an inheritance of nations come see the cross where love and mercy meet as the son of god [Music] christ emerges from the grave this victory march continues [Music] give grace for every hurdle [Music] [Applause] [Music] triumphs of his grace when with christ we stand in glory [Music] it is traditional on communion sundays that we take time before we receive the sacrament to offer to the lord our confession and seek his cleansing and forgiveness anew i invite you to turn in your bulletins or follow along on the screens as we pray together this unison prayer of confession let's pray almighty and most merciful father whose chosen dwelling is the heart that longs for you and humbly seeks you we come to you to acknowledge and confess that we have sinned in thought word and deed we have not loved you with all our hearts nor have we loved our neighbor as ourselves deepen within us our sorrow for the wrongs we have done and the good we have failed to do you have promised that you are full of compassion slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love we plead for your mercy and forgiveness and for restoration to full fellowship with you through the sacrifice of your son our savior amen the bible says if we claim to be without sin we are only lying to ourselves and the truth is not in us but if we confess our sins god is faithful and just and will forgive us all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness on the basis of the word of god and the promise of christ i declare you are forgiven and now we will invite the ushers to come forward as we give back to the lord a portion of his blessings to us recognizing that this is a time-honored way we worship god not that we repay him but that we in love and gratitude return a portion of his blessings to us so as the ushers come forward let's listen as stacy's going to sing for us this beautiful song entitled blessings [Music] we pray for blessings we pray for peace comfort for family protection while we sleep we pray for healing for prosperity [Music] we pray for your mighty hand to [Music] us way too much to give us lesser things cause what if your blessings come through raindrops one of your healing comes through tears 45 000 sleepless nights are what it [Music] takes of this life all your mercies in disguise we pray for wisdom your voice to hear we cry in anger when we cannot feel you near doubt your goodness we doubt your love as if every promise from your word enough i know the why you hear each desperate plea and long that we'd have faith to believe cause what if your blessings come through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears [Music] all your mercies in disguise when friends betray us when darkness seems to win [Music] is it's not our [Music] cause home if your blessings come through raindrops what if your healing comes through tears a thousand sleepless nights or what it takes to know you know what if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life a is thirst this world can't satisfy what if trust on this life the rain the storms those hardest nights are your mercies in disguise [Music] [Applause] thank you stacy well the service will conclude and culminate in the celebration of the sacrament of holy communion but before we get to that it's appropriate for us to open god's word and seek to hear what the lord might speak to us today during the season of lent that roughly six weeks that leads us up to the celebration of holy week and the resurrection of christ our lord your pastoral staff has collaborated on a unified sermon series which we are calling the enemies of the soul if you are with us on ash wednesday you may have heard that pastor doug actually laid the ground right work for this entire series with a message called welcome to the war in which he declared to us that every single human being is actually at war now unlike the wars that rage across the globe today our war is not against flesh and blood as a person battles another person or nation against nation rather our war is against the great spiritual enemy the enemies of the soul against the powers and principalities that would seek to ravage the kingdom of god and as such our war is dissimilar to the history of war where nations sought to battle over physical territories to capture and it's much more actually like battling an insurgency in that regard the battle of the spiritual realm the lines of demarcation are not always clear in addition sometimes our enemy masquerades in civilian clothing and just when you think you've gotten victory over it it rears its ugly head in a new and unexpected form so for the next six weeks your pastors will be leading you through a series to study our enemy with the hopes of achieving victory over it and uh using only the weapons that god has permitted us to use so you can think of this morning's meditation somewhat like a mission briefing against the great enemy of the soul worry where are my worriers at how many of you are worried that if you raise your hand we're gonna think less of you worry is a great enemy of the soul and it's one that is common to all of us despite what bobby mcferrin's 1989 grammy award-winning song would have you believe it's not as easy as the simple little song he wrote to battle against this great enemy of the soul but rather that simple refrain don't worry be happy has actually never worked for anybody it's like telling somebody who's angry to calm down it's never worked once every one of us has had to battle with worry because it is a profoundly human experience some of us frequent a state of threat don't we we tend to worry about our lives our health perhaps our finances our relationships our careers we worry about a a broader group of people called our family and friends as well if you've ever had aging parents and watched them decline you've given nights of your life worrying about them if you've got a spouse who's become ill either physically or emotionally you've worried about them if you've ever been a parent boy you know what it's like to worry because as soon as that little life comes into the world the worry begins what are the things that they're going to face how can we prepare them for it will we be ever able to prepare them for college and pay for it at that we tend to worry about our kids and i'm told that that worry never grows away even when they're adults it just changes so we worry about ourselves we worry about our families we worry about our nation how many of you spent a few days lately worrying about inflation every time i drive past a gas station now i think i should buy a tesla we tend to worry about religious liberty and crisis and the division in our political arena we worry about our nation in a corrosion of the cultural morals of it and we worry about our world when i wrote this meditation two weeks ago i wrote that we worry about the looming tensions in eastern europe and today for 11 days there has been a war as russia has laid siege to ukraine we worry about lots of different things don't we sometimes i think we worry that maybe we worry too much i mean everyone wondered what if there's something wrong with me i tend to worry a little bit we tend to worry about all sorts of different things and while what we worry about is vast and sundry the truth is it has this in common what we worry about is always what we're uncertain about and what we're uncertain about is always in the future you can have regrets about the past but you can't change the past so why worry about it you can be fearful in the present of something that's directly in front of you but but that's the present is fleeting it's here and then it's gone what we worry about what occupies our time and attention is always relegated to the future because the future is uncertain what are you worried about this morning how much of your life do you spend in worry one study revealed that the average american spends about two and a half hours a day fretting if you extrapolate that over the average american lifespan that means that some people spend about six and a half years of their lives worrying that's a lot of worry another study says this one came out from penn state university in 2020 said that for those people who worry the most only less than eight percent of the things that they worry about actually come to pass which means that ninety-two percent of the time that they spend worrying are worrying about things that will never actually happen what are you worried about how much of your life is it taking up well we're going to look at a scripture passage about a group of people that needless to say was worried they had a lot to be worried about they were going off to war and not just a spiritual war they were going off to a physical battleground which was compounded by the spiritual idea of worry as well but you need a little bit of context for it after charlton uh after moses rather had um ransomed captive israel from egypt and led them by way of the red sea and that miraculous parting of the red sea the lord continued to work through moses in miraculous ways why when moses was the leader of the people the lord fed the people with manna in the wilderness giving them their daily bread every day god gave them the ten commandments which they carried around with them in the ark of the covenant moses one time went up the side of a mountain and there he met with the lord and asked to see the lord's glory when he came back down from the mountain the glory of the lord was radiating all over him such that the people were afraid and so he had to cover his face moses was frequent the tent of the meeting where he would speak to the lord face to face as a person would speak to a friend he instituted oh enduring festivals and traditions like the passover which reminded the people of who they were and more importantly who god was suffice to say moses was an iconic leader who led the people all the way to the edge of the promised land however the people of israel and moses were not permitted to enter into it because of disobedience and while the people grumbled against moses during his early earthly life the truth is they were far more anxious without him the book of deuteronomy records the end of moses's life and it records these words at the at the very end about the anxiety that fell upon the people it says since the death of moses no prophet prophet has risen in israel like moses whom the lord knew face to face who did all those signs and wonders the lord sent him to do in egypt to pharaoh and all into all his officials into his whole land for no one has ever shown the mighty power performed the awesome deeds that moses did in the sight of all israel so the people were worried what would they ever do without moses their leader moses knew that they were going to be worried so he chose his successor a man whose name was joshua joshua had been with moses since he was a young man moses had mentored him and even delegated some of his authority to him and joshua gave the most compelling first speech he could give he told the people be strong and courageous do not be afraid for the lord your god is with you wherever you go truth be told he was just quoting moses moses had given him that same speech which he then delivered to the people but the people were concerned would joshua be able to be the person that led them into the promised land one time moses sent a delegation of spies into the promised land and they came back with a report ten of the spies said that the the land was filled with giants so joshua's charge would be go to go into this land that was filled with giants and to lead the people into the war so the people were nonetheless a little bit worried about their future when we catch up with israel they are on the plains of moab on the east side of the jordan river the jordan river is swollen beyond its banks because of seasonal rains and snow that had melted from mount hermon and there the people of god have got to be strong and courageous and get mobilized to go into a land filled with giants here now the word of the lord from joshua chapter 3 verses 5 through 17 and then we're going to read chapter 4 verse 14. joshua told the people consecrate yourselves for tomorrow the lord will do amazing things among you joshua said to the priests take up the ark of the covenant and pass on ahead of the people so they took it up and went ahead of them and the lord said to joshua today i will begin to exalt you in the eyes of israel so that they may know that i am with you as i was with moses tell the priests carrying the ark of the covenant when you reach the edge of the jordan's waters go and stand in the river joshua said to the israelites come here and listen to the words of the lord your god this is how you will know that the living god is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the canaanites hittites hyphites perizzites gerjits amorites and jebusites all those people see the ark of the covenant of the lord of all the earth will go into the jordan ahead of you now then choose 12 men from the tribes of israel one from each tribe and as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the lord the lord of all the earth set foot in the jordan its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap this will be a crossing of the red sea moment for the next generation so when the people broke camp to cross the jordan the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them now the jordan is at flood stage all during the harvest and as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the jordan and their feet touched the water's edge the water upstream stopped flowing it piled up in a heap a great distance away at a town called adam in the vicinity of zarathan while the water flowing down to the sea of arabah that is the dead sea was completely cut off so the people crossed over opposite jericho the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the lord stopped in the middle of the jordan and stood on dry ground while all israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground and now skipping ahead to the fourth chapter verse 14. that day the lord exalted joshua in the sight of all israel and they stood in awe of him all the days of his life just as they had stood in awe of moses here ends our reading for this morning have you ever noticed that worry can be all consuming it can sort of swell beyond the banks of the what's normal and uh even become somewhat of a flood to our consciousness it tends to make our problems seem bigger than they perhaps are a couple of weeks ago my kids had the day off of school and i'm off on fridays it happened to be a friday and i decided you know mom's not home so perhaps i should toss the kids all in the pool burn some energy off so they're nice and ready to go to sleep and everything will be smooth for the evening right throw the kids in the pool i'm setting up a speaker turning on some music making a real pool party outside i've got my back to the pool and all of a sudden i hear sounds of absolute shrieking coming from behind me i quickly turned around only to see my children spilling out of the pool in tears and terror and i say what's going on and my children reported to me they said there's a tarantula in the pool i did what you did i chuckled assuming that there's this tiny little lanai spider you know the ones that you get that form little webs on your lanai and you call the spider guy and he comes and he brushes off the lanai and no big deal and then i saw it now you need to know this about me i don't really like spiders what i appreciate about god's creation and the what i love about animals is that they're wonderful and furry but that's what i also hate about spiders when they are furry and so i saw this guy and i decided well i need to be the brave man of the house here and deliver my children from the enslave the slavery of this giant arachnid so i grabbed the pool skimmer you know the extendable one and i extended it as far as i could extend it and i dipped the front of it into the water and i scooped up the little infiltrator got him on there and he quickly scurried and popped back into the pool and all the children screamed at once you know did you ever see the movie christmas vacation where the squirrel gets loose in the house and every time the squirrel jumps people scream right so i scoop the spider back up and every time i move a little bit too quickly the children all scream in unison so i recruit my bravest little cadet and happy to be david on this day and i say david you're gonna have to go open the lanai door for me buddy he goes i don't know if i can i said buddy you got to go open the lanai door for me he goes okay he opens the little eye door and i walk outside with a spider i walk up to the edge of my fence and i catapult the spider over the fence i don't have any houses behind my house there's unincorporated it wasn't somebody else's yard i promise you and i can't be certain but i'm pretty sure when it landed i heard a thud so i get the kids back into the lanai and i get them calmed down i assure them it's safe to go back into the waters and then i did what all of you would do which is i googled giant spiders in southwest florida to figure out what it was and i'm not kidding that's what it was it was a huntsman spider and those things can grow to six inches in diameter and it has grown in my imagination ever since it happened by the time my wife got home from wherever she was we were describing it as being about the size of our hand and that's what fear and worry does to us it takes those things in our lives and it expands them it makes them bigger than they actually are the truth is israel had at least two giants that they were facing one of whom they were losing and one of whom they were about to go into battle against they were about to lose and had actually just lost that great iconic giant of a leader moses who had so faithfully led them and they were going through a leadership transition to a man named joshua who candidly at this point in time was a little bit untested and they were worried if he really had what it takes to do the job that was in front of him to make matters worse not only was a leadership transition that they were going through anxiety-inducing enough the place that they were going into had giants remember what those spies came back reporting according to the book of numbers when they got back from the promised land they said these words the land we explore divires devours those living in it all the people we saw there are of great size we seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes and we looked the same to them if it wasn't enough to lose one giant of a leader they were going into battle against another group of giants and they were concerned so joshua gives him a pretty good speech he then sends in two spies back into the promised land and they come back reporting the people of jericho's hearts are melting in fear because they know that the lord your god is with you just as joshua had told them now to this point in israel's history joshua was somewhat the leader in their eyes but honestly he wasn't really the leader in their hearts they weren't sure that he could do what he needed to do and then the people's toes touched the waters of the jordan and the waters piled up in a heap 20 miles upstream and they walk through on dry ground remember this is a group of people an entire generation had passed away in the wilderness this is a group of people that had heard stories of the way in which moses had led the people about how the parting of the red sea had happened but they didn't experience it firsthand and now when the priest's toes touch the water and the water parts before them they become convinced that just as god had been with moses before that god was going to be with joshua as well and joshua goes from being leaders and a leader in their eyes to being a leader in their hearts as well the truth is what we worry about actually affects our lives in multiple ways when we are worried our higher order thinking and processing doesn't take place actually what happens is we become less capable of solving problems in addition we start lashing out at people around us this is why you can't reason with your worry and it's not as simple as just saying don't worry be happy so what strategies can we learn from this passage about how we as people of god can take on the great enemy of the soul worry i'm going to suggest to you three different ways to do that the first is this we must trust in the sovereignty of god while the future seems uncertain to us the truth is the future is never uncertain to god while the giants of our lives those things that we worry about either real or imagined remember 92 of them never actually come to fruition the giants seem like massive things to us and we seem like grasshoppers in comparison to them the truth is even our biggest problems are like grasshoppers to god while the world seems to be spinning out of control the truth is that god is actually in control of all things when you and i worry what we're really trying to do is by fixating on things to control our circumstances but when we surrender our worry to the lord trusting that god is sovereign what we're actually doing is giving our problems back to the one who's in control of them anyway by trusting in god biblically speaking what we're really doing is taking on the shield of faith by which we can extinguish the flaming arrows of god this crossing of the jordan experience for the israelites was when the people recognized that the god who had worked in their past was working in their present and would indefinitely work with them in their future aren't you glad that the god that we worship is the same yesterday today and forever so the first thing we need to do if we're going to battle against the great enemy of the soul worry is to trust in the sovereignty of god who is bigger and stronger and greater than any of the giants that we see or imagine in the world and secondly if we're going to win the battle against worry we need to consecrate ourselves for tomorrow the word consecrate when it's used in the scriptures really refers to setting something aside to make it holy honestly we can't make ourselves holy before the lord that's why jesus came that's what we sang about and how deep the fathers love that that god has taken our sin upon himself and he has given us his righteousness this is theologically true but to consecrate ourselves is to allow the work of god that started in jesus to become manifest in our lives it's to take what god has done inwardly and represent it outwardly as well i think of it somewhat like what the book of romans chapter 6 13 says when it says offer yourselves to god as those who have been brought from death to life and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness we're going to win the battle against worry we need to consecrate ourselves now previously israel had been invited to consecrate themselves just before god gave them the ten commandments they were to wash of themselves as an outward symbol of an inner renewal so they wash themselves and in this moment as they're crossing the jordan river somewhat like the waters of baptism they are washing of themselves setting themselves apart so that they might be prepared for the task of tomorrow namely fighting against the giants in the land i think about this somewhat like the book of ephesians describes to us to consecrate ourselves is to put on the breastplate of righteousness the breastplate of righteousness guards our hearts against the deceitfulness of sin in doing so we are strengthened from within we are are encouraged that's what the word encouraged means means to be strengthened within such that our hearts don't melt in fear and worry as by the way jericho's hearts had melted in fear and worry by taking on the breastplate of righteousness consecrating ourselves unto the lord washing of ourselves to be righteous outwardly as god has already made us inwardly we are taking ourselves and giving ourselves encouragement strengthening from within for the battles we'll face tomorrow so if you want to win the war against the great enemy of the soul worth worry we need to not only trust in the sovereignty of god but as we have been made holy inwardly we need to consecrate ourselves for tomorrow and finally if we're going to win the war against the great enemy of the soul worry we need to let the word of god lead us did you notice in this passage what went out ahead of the people joshua tells the people to take the ark of the covenant out ahead of the people what's in the ark of the covenant the 12 or the two stone tablets containing the ten commandments and the twelve tribes of israel leaders take this ark of the covenant out into the jordan river and that's where god does his most powerful work of stopping the water's flow the bible tells us that the word of god goes out and never returns empty but it accomplishes everything that god has set forth for it to do the israelites literally let the word of god lead them and so too we need to let the word of god lead us so that we can take on the breastplate of righteousness so that we can hold the shield of faith in order that we might win a victory over the great enemy of the soul of worry so the israelites they get across the jordan river they camp on in gilgal and there they celebrate the passover meal and the passover meal commemorates and remembers the way in which god had worked with israel in the past and in so doing it reminded them of who they were and who god was and it strengthened them for the battle ahead so too we are crossing the jordan river this morning and we're camping in the plains of gilgal and we too have a meal to celebrate one that reminds us of who we are we are people of the risen king and we as we celebrate this meal we are remembering everything that jesus accomplished for us with his body broken and his bloodshed and how he has already made us holy so as we come to this table i invite you to trust in god's sovereignty as you battle whatever it is that you're battling for worry i invite you to consecrate yourselves to allow this meal to renew you inwardly and i invite you to trust in the word of god that has invited you to this space would you bow your heads and hearts and pray with me o lord our god we give you thanks and praise for you alone our god and lord as we worry about many things we recognize that you are in control of all things so we surrender ourselves to you and ask oh lord that you would meet with us as we celebrate this sacrament and remind us that you are the giant that you are the one who actually has consecrated us and that lord you are the one who has given us your word to lead us so help us to be your people gathered around this table in christ's name we pray amen my friends as we gather at this table one of our favorite things to remind you of is that the invitation to this table doesn't actually come from me it doesn't come from pastor doug it doesn't come from this church or this denomination the invitation to this table comes from jesus our savior as such you don't have to be a member of this church you actually don't have to be a presbyterian all that's required is what christ has done for you it is christ who invites you so we in turn repeat that to you and say come to the table our lord and savior jesus christ gathered with his disciples around this table and he took bread and broke it and he gave it to his disciples and said take eat this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me would you pray with me holy god we give you thanks and praise for your body broken for us and we thank you o lord for the way in which this meal will nourish and sustain us we pray that you would set apart the ordinary elements of bread and cup and use them for your divine purposes in our lives that we might find that we can trust in you more closely today we pray these things in christ's name amen and now i invite you to take your communion kit to peel back the clear layer to take the bread out and once you have it out to hold it up high so that we can all see take eat this is christ's body broken for you [Music] lamb of god you take away the sins of the world grant us your lamb of peace you take away the sin of the world gracie on us lamb of god you take away the sins of the world grant us your peace [Music] in the same way also jesus took the cup and he said this cup is the new covenant in my blood do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes again let us pray lord jesus there is no way we could ever adequately thank you let alone repay you for your innocent body broken and your innocent blood shed for us we pray now that you will bless this sacrament to a holy and spiritual use in your name we pray amen please take your communion kits now open up the foil covering when it's opened lift the cup high this is the blood of christ shed for you take and drink [Music] as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup you proclaim the lord's death until he comes you proclaim the lord's death until he comes would you bow your heads and hearts with me once more gracious god we thank you for coming to us in this holy meal this celebration of christ's death and resurrection may this feast nourish and sustain us as we await the coming of christ and do your work in the world amen friends our closing hymn today is how firm a foundation it's number 411 i invite you to stand and the words will be on the screen so [Music] is [Music] jesus [Music] my [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] shall be [Music] [Music] i will not i will not deserve its force [Music] no never directly following worship we invite you to greet one another in christian love and i just want to remind you that the new members we recognize at the beginning of this service will be in mcclure hall and we encourage you to go and greet them if you read something in their bio that you connected with to go and make that connection with them and now depart with these words that moses spoke first and that joshua quoted moses as having said when he said do not be afraid be strong and courageous go because the lord your god will be with you wherever you go and so go out in the grace of our lord and savior jesus christ the love of god and the fellowship and power of the holy spirit now and forevermore amen [Music] um you

Channel: FPC Bonita

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Length: 71min 10sec (4270 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022