WORSHIP TOGETHER

WELCOME AND CALL TO WORSHIP

ALL HAIL THE POW’R OF JESUS’ NAME

All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all,
Bring forth the royal diadem
and crown him Lord of all.

Ye chosen seed of Israel’s race,
ye ransomed from the fall,
Hail him who saves you by his grace
and crown him Lord of all,
Hail him who saves you by his grace
and crown him Lord of all.

Let every kindred every tribe
on this terrestrial ball
To him all majesty ascribe
and crown him Lord of all,
To him all majesty ascribe
and crown him Lord of all.

O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall!
We’ll join the everlasting song
and crown him Lord of all,
We’ll join the everlasting song
and crown him Lord of all,
and crown him Lord of all!

Words: Edward Perronet and John Rippon; Music: Oliver Holden; PD; CCLI License #11029770

SING HIS LOVE

Father, long before creation,
you have chosen us in love,
And that love, so deep, so moving,
draws us close to Christ above.
Still it keeps us, still it keeps us
firmly fixed in Christ alone.

Though the world may change its fashion,
yet our God is ever the same;
His compassion and his cov’nant
through all ages will remain.
God’s own children, God’s own children
must forever praise his name.

And the world will sing his love!
Yes the world will sing his love!
And we’ll all join hands, every woman, every man,
To sing his love, to sing his love.

God’s compassion is my story,
is my boasting all the day;
Mercy free and never failing
moves my will, directs my way.
God so loved us, God so loved us
that his only Son he gave.

Loving Father, now before you,
we will ever praise your love,
And our songs will sound unceasing
till we reach our home above,
Giving glory, giving glory
to our God and to the Lamb.

And the world will sing his love!
Yes the world will sing his love!
And we’ll all join hands, every woman, every man,
To sing his love, to sing his love.

Words: Chinese Hymn, trans. Francis P. Jones, 1953, alt.; Music: Andrew Osenga; © 2005 The Velvet Eagle Sings; CCLI License #11029770

CONFESSION OF FAITH

FROM EXODUS 34:6-8 AND HEIDELBERG CATECHISM 1

The LORD passed before Moses and proclaimed,

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

But who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.

And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped.

Christian, what is your only comfort in life and in death?

That I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven; in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

PASTORAL PRAYER

GIVING

YOUR GRACE IS ENOUGH

Great is your faithfulness, O God!
You wrestle with the sinner’s restless heart;
You lead us by still waters into mercy,
And nothing can keep us apart.
So, remember your people,
Remember your children,
Remember your promise, O God.

Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough for me!

Great is your love and justice, God of Jacob!
You use the weak to lead the strong;
You lead us in the song of your salvation,
And all your people sing along.
So, remember your people,
Remember your children,
Remember your promise, O God.

Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough for me!

Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough for me!

Remember your people,
Remember your children,
Remember your promise, O God.

Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough;
Your grace is enough for me!

Your grace is enough!
Heaven reaching down to us!
Your grace is enough for me!

Your grace is enough!
I’m covered in your love!
Your grace is enough for me!

Words/Music: Matt Maher; © 2003 Thankyou Music; CCLI License #11029770

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Our Father, you are high and lifted up, you inhabit eternity, your name is holy. You dwell in the high and holy place. Your thoughts are not our thoughts. Neither are your ways our ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your ways higher than our ways and your thoughts higher than our thoughts. And yet, in your grace, you promise to dwell with those who are of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

So, heavenly Father, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so may your word be that comes into our ears today: may it not return to you empty, may it accomplish that which you purpose, and may it succeed in the thing for which you sent it. Speak now, for your children are listening. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

SERMON

SERIES: THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS

SERMON: THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY

SCRIPTURE: ROMANS 9:1-29

1 I am speaking the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit—2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. 4 They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. 5 To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, 7 and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” 8 This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. 9 For this is what the promise said: “About this time next year I will return, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only so, but also when Rebekah had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, 11 though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls—12 she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” 13 As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

14 What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! 15 For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” 18 So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills.

19 You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?” 20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” 21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

    “Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
        and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
        there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will be saved, 28 for the Lord will carry out his sentence upon the earth fully and without delay.” 29 And as Isaiah predicted,

    “If the Lord of hosts had not left us offspring,
        we would have been like Sodom
        and become like Gomorrah.”

OUTLINE

1. The Argument

2. The Application

HIS MERCY IS MORE

What love could remember no wrongs we have done?
Omniscient, all knowing—he counts not their sum!
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore—
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

Praise the Lord! His mercy is more!
Stronger than darkness, new every morn;
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

What patience would wait as we constantly roam?
What Father, so tender, is calling us home?
He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor—
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

Praise the Lord! His mercy is more!
Stronger than darkness, new every morn;
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

What riches of kindness he lavished on us!
His blood was the payment, his life was the cost;
We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford—
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

Praise the Lord! His mercy is more!
Stronger than darkness, new every morn;
Our sins, they are many; his mercy is more!

Music/Words: Matt Boswell and Matt Papa; © 2016 Messenger Hymns; CCLI License #11029770

BENEDICTION