Sun., 23 August 2020 — Worship Bulletin
Sunday, 23 August 2020 || 12th Sunday after Pentecost
✠ ✠ ✠ Preparing to Hear the Word of God ✠ ✠ ✠
Prelude:
Joys, Concerns & Announcements:
∙ This Week:
∙ Monday @ 6 PM — Worship Committee
∙ Tuesday @ 6 PM — Learners’ Fellowship Bible Study
∙ The Church Website has been and is being updated. Remember to check: https://northlibertypc.org
∙ The Worship Service videos will be uploaded to Pastor Rusty’s YouTube channel (Albert Stuart). If you don’t know how to access the YouTube channels, not to worry, I will be posting the links to the FaceBook group.
∙ Newsletter articles will be due next Sunday (30 August and the newsletter will be put together and shared on Sun., 6 Sept.
∙ Sun., Sept 13th — Special Offering for the Deacons (without Communion).
∙ Sun., Sept 20th @ 3 PM — outdoor installation service for Pastor Rusty. If you have a tent or canopy you would be willing to share, please let Susan Black know.
Time of Meditation:
Call to Worship:
Pastor: Glory to the Father in Whom all things began!
People: Glory to the Son Who became the Son of Man!
Pastor: Glory to the Spirit Who inspires and renews, the Lord our God forever! Let us worship the Lord our God with heart and mind.
Unison: To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, Himself human, who gave Himself a ransom for all. Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory. We come before Him in the splendor of His holiness to worship Him with joy and love. (I Timothy 1:17, 2:5-6 & 3:16[b])
Prayer of Invocation:
Hymn: “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” # 324
Call to Confession:
Prayer of Confession:
Unison: Almighty God, we know that You have created all things and people, and that all we have, are and possess comes from Your hand by Your grace. We know that without You and Your grace we would be utterly undone. Yet, all too often we forget You and act and think in ways that deny both You and Your loving grace. We pretend that our lives are completely self-directed. We neglect our relationship to You and with each other. As we confess our sins, faults and flaws, we humbly ask You to cover us with the blood of Your Son’s sacrifice. Forgive us and heal us, we pray. Transform us so that we may be fit dwellings for You and effective and useful tools for service in Your Kingdom. Amen.
Declaration of Pardon:
- Gloria Patri:
✠ ✠ ✠ Hearing the Word of God ✠ ✠ ✠
Childrens’ Message:
Prayer for Illumination:
Scripture Lessons:
Psalm 51:1 – 19
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to Your steadfast love;
according to Your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against You, You only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in Your sight,
so that You may be justified in Your words
and blameless in Your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, You delight in truth in the inward being,
and You teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that You have broken rejoice.
9 Hide Your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from Your presence,
and take not Your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
and sinners will return to You.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of Your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare Your praise.
16 For You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in Your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will You delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on Your altar.
John 3:1 – 8 & 16 – 21
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” . . .
. . . 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”
Romans 1:18 – 32
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Pastor: This is the Word of the Lord.
Prayers of the People & The Lord’s Prayer:
Sermon: “How Much Trouble Are We In, Really?”
The Rev. Albert Rhodes Stuart
✠ ✠ ✠ Responding to the Word of God ✠ ✠ ✠
Prayer of Response:
The Affirmation of Faith: The Apostles’ Creed
*Hymn: “God of Grace & God of Glory” # 435
The Offering:
* Prayer of Dedication:
* The Doxology:
Hymn: “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” # 320
Ascription of Praise:
Charge & Benediction:
Postlude:
Heidelberg Catechism Q & A 9 – 11: