After a week off due to the extremely cold weather, it was such a blessing to be able to worship together in church! This was our worship order from Sunday, February 22, 2015:
Call to Worship: Psalm 145:1-13 I will extol you, my God and King, and bless your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless you and praise your name forever and ever. ALL: Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable. One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. ALL: On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds, and I will declare your greatness. ALL: They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of your righteousness. The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. ALL: The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made. All your works shall give thanks to you, O Lord, and all your saints shall bless you! They shall speak of the glory of your kingdom and tell of your power, to make known to the children of man your mighty deeds, and the glorious splendor of your kingdom. ALL: Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations.
Welcome to the online service of Calvary Community Church! As the temperatures are dangerously cold we’ll be meeting here together today.
Psalm 8 (ESV)
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 139:1-10 (NRSV)
O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it.
Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.
From Pastor James:
“I have loved our time in Malachi together!There has been something I have wanted to share with you, but have not and was hoping for the right time to share it.I think this is the right time, so here it is – Malachi mentions something twenty-four times in the final book of the Old Testament.That is an average of six times per chapter!What is it?Twenty-four times this name is mentioned:the Lord of hosts.
My hope is that you will think about this name today.Think about this name as we grow together and seek to serve God and enjoy God together.It is significant.I know I have probably mentioned this every week (and just so you know it will be mentioned next week too), but when the book of Malachi is finished there will be four hundred years that will pass until the events and words of the New Testament.So, the mentioning of the name “the Lord of hosts” twenty-four times is significant if just for the fact that four hundred years of stillness is coming and perhaps from a human perspective, four hundred years of uncertainty.
The repeated mentioning of this name matters.The name “the Lord of hosts” is a name when literally translated means “the Lord of armies” or “the Lord who rules over all.”Our God is the Lord who is in charge.Our God is the Lord who is in control.Our God is the Lord who goes forth and leads to victory.
Twenty-four times throughout Malachi, this last book of the Old Testament, this is what is being brought to the attention for these believers as they head into the coming four hundred years of stillness.Fight for your mind and remember our God is the Lord who goes forth and leads to victory.Yes the four hundred years may have felt like a time of uncertainty and it was a time of stillness, but it was not a time without the Lord who goes forth and leads to victory.
In the year that King Uzziah died and Isaiah saw the Lord high and lifted up and heard the question “Who will go for us?” He exclaimed, “Here am I, Send me!”Before that exclamation Isaiah said, “My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Now when he saw the King, Isaiah saw his own guilt and inadequacy. “Woe is me!For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”Then the seraphim flew to him with a burning coal and touched his mouth and declared, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
Imagine though, Isaiah saw the Lord who goes forth and leads to victory and when it was asked “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” he said “Here am I!Send me!”There is something in knowing that God is the one who goes forth and leads to victory.
When we feel overwhelmed or when we feel like failures; when we feel so inadequate or when we feel like we are without help, remember the God we seek to serve is the one who goes forth and leads to victory!
It made me think about the words that were given to Mary when she was told that she would conceive and give birth to the Savior.“For nothing will be impossible with God.”Or “For no word will be impossible with God.”Mary’s response, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.”Nothing is impossible for the God who goes forth and leads to victory.No word is impossible for the God who goes forth and leads to victory, so may we say, “Behold, we are His servants!”
Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,were not the right man on our side,the man of God’s own choosing. Dost ask who that may be?Christ Jesus, it is he; Lord Sabaoth, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle!”
Here’s our worship order from Sunday, February 8, 2015. (click highlighted titles to listen)
Call to Worship:
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised Psalm 96:1-4
This is another great song by Keith & Kristyn Getty. We’ve been using this for a while now so I was surprised I hadn’t done a post on it yet.
Come, people of the risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise.
Come, all, and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Let ev’ry tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice,
O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night.
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Let ev’ry tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice,
O Church of Christ, rejoice!
Come, young and old from ev’ry land,
Men and women of the faith.
Come, those with full or empty hands;
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world His people sing;
Shore to shore we hear them call —
The Truth that cries though ev’ry age:
“Our God is all in all!”
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Let ev’ry tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice,
O Church of Christ rejoice!
Here’s our order of worship from Sunday, February 1st, 2015.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
I grew up singing this song but I haven’t sung it for years. Our pastor read some of the lyrics last Sunday which prompted me to add it to our service this week.
I love this recording of it. Simple and straight-forward but sung with such enthusiasm.
And Can It Be? And can it be that I should gain
An interest in the Savior’s blood?
Died he for me, who caused his pain?
For me, who Him to death pursued?
Amazing love! How can it be
That Thou, my God, should die for me?
CHORUS Amazing love! How can it be That Thou, my God, should die for me?
He left His Father’s throne above;
So free, so infinite His grace.
Emptied Himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
‘Tis mercy all, immense and free,
For O my God, it found out me.
(chorus)
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quick’ning ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off; my heart was free.
I rose, went forth and followed Thee.
(chorus)
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed righteousness divine;
Bold I approach the eternal throne
And claim the crown, through Christ my own.
(chorus)
Text: Charles Wesley; Music: Thomas Campbell; Public Domain
Here’s our worship order from Sunday, January 25, 2015. (click on highlighted titles to listen)
You will keep the mind that is dependent on You in perfect peace, for it is trusting in You. Trust in the Lord forever, because in YAH, the Lord, is an everlasting rock! For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken. For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be shaken. On God rests my salvation and my glory; my mighty rock, my refuge is God. Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your heart before him; God is a refuge for us. ~Isaiah 26:3-4 HCSB, Psalm 62:1-2, 5-7 ESV
