Preparing To Rejoice In Him // September 9, 2018

PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR WORSHIP ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2018

REFLECTION

“The self-denial (found) in the Gospels is always the surrender of a lesser, dying self for a greater eternal one – the person God intended in creating you… Jesus does not deny us personal fulfillment, but shows us the only true way to it. In him we ‘find our life.’ He would keep us from selling our birthright as creatures in God’s image… for a mere bowl of soup: perhaps a little illicit sex, money, reputation, power, self-righteousness – ‘the pleasures of sin for season’ – or for the mere promise or possibility of such.

The ‘cross we must take is lead upon all obsessive and partial desires so that the broad reach of agape love can integrate for us a whole and eternal life with God and man. Jesus is not some harsh ascetic who practiced or imposed pain for its own sake… ‘for the joy set before him, he endured the cross and despised its shame…

To take him as our master means that we trust his way is right and, as he himself did, always look to the larger good under God.”
~Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of Christ

“Sex provides a physical solution for a personal problem. The evil thing is that it seems to work so well. During those few magic moments of sexual peak, a person experiences a consuming excitement in the body that counterfeits a sense of wholeness in the soul. Satan’s most convincing imitation of the enduring and real personal worth available in Christ is the temporary but intense bodily pleasure of sex. He seeks to persuade us that when our bodies are tingling with sexual excitement, we have reached the ultimate in our potential for satisfaction – there is nothing deeper to be enjoyed. And his argument is convincing to the degree that we regard ourselves as mere bodies evolved from impersonal matter and not real persons made in the image of the personal God.”
~Dr. Larry Crabb, The Marriage Builder

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.” ~Tim Keller, The Reason For God

CALL TO WORSHIP :: Matthew 11:28-30

[28] Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

WORSHIP IN SONG :: All To Jesus I Surrender

All to Jesus, I surrender
All to Him I freely give
May I ever love and trust Him
In His presence daily live

I surrender all
I surrender all
All to Thee, my blessed Savior
I surrender all

All to Jesus, I surrender
Humbly at His feet I bow
Worldly pleasures all forsaken
Take me, Jesus, take me now

All to Jesus, I surrender
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine
May Thy Holy Spirit fill me
May I know Thy power divine

All to Jesus, I surrender
Lord, I give myself to Thee
Fill me with Thy love and power
Let Thy blessing fall on me

CONFESSION OF FAITH :: New City Catechism, Question 3

Question 3

How many persons are there in God?

There are three persons in the one true and living God: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are the same in substance, equal in power and glory.

SERMON :: Surrendered Sexuality

Genesis 2:18–25

[18] Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” [19] Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. [20] The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. [21] So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. [22] And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.”

[24] Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. [25] And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (ESV)