Preparing To Rejoice In Him // January 28, 2018

PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR WORSHIP ON JANUARY 28, 2018

REFLECTION

“If you should ask me what are the ways of God, I would tell you that the first is humility, the second is humility, and the third is humility. Not that there are no other precepts to give, but if humility does not precede all that we do, our efforts our meaningless.” – Augustine

“There is a powerful effect that the gospel of grace has on a person that has been touched by it. First, the person who knows that he received mercy while an undeserving enemy of God will have a heart of love for even (and especially!) the most ungrateful and difficult persons. When a Christian sees prostitutes, alcoholics, prisoners, drug addicts, unwed mothers, the homeless, the refugees, he knows that he is looking in a mirror.”

– Tim Keller, Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road

WORSHIP IN SONG :: IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

When peace like a river attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say
“It is well, it is well with my soul”

It is well (It is well)
With my soul (With my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul

Tho’ Satan should buffet, tho’ trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood for my soul

My sin O the bliss of this glorious tho’t
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! O my soul

And Lord haste the day when my faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend
Even so! It is well with my soul

GOD CALLS US TO WORSHIP :: ISAIAH 45: 15, 18, 21, 23

[15] Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.

[18] For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens – HE IS GOD, who formed the earth and made it; he established it; he did not create it empty, he formed it to be inhabited! “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”

[21] Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together! Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none besides me.

[23] By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.’

CONFESSION OF FAITH :: WESTMINSTER SHORTER CATECHISM (MEV) 26-28

Q26. How is Christ a king?
As a king, Christ brings us under His power, rules and defends us, and restrains and conquers all His and all our enemies.

Q27. How was Christ humiliated?
Christ was humiliated: by being born as a man and born into a poor family; by being made subject to the law and suffering the miseries of this life, the anger of God, and the curse of death on the cross; and by being buried and remaining under the power of death for a time.

Q28. How is Christ exalted?
Christ is exalted by His rising from the dead on the third day, His going up into heaven, His sitting at the right hand of God the Father, and His coming to judge the world at the last day.

GOD’S WORD PROCLAIMED :: PHILIPPIANS 2:1-11

Christ’s Example of Humility

[1] So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, [2] complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. [3] Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. [4] Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. [5] Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, [6] who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, [7] but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. [8] And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. [9] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, [10] so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, [11] and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (ESV)