Announcements
Today:
Annual Congregational Meeting, immediately following the worship
service.
January 30, 2011
11:30 am Worship
Prelude
Announcements
Call to Worship
Psalm 118
Minister: Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast
love endures forever!
All: The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation.
Minister: You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my
God; I will extol you.
All: Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast
love endures forever!
Silent Prayer
*Hymn of Praise # 55
To God Be the Glory
*God’s Greeting
Our Need for a Savior
Song of Redemption # 493
Matthew 5:17-20
1 Corinthians 1:30
Congregational Prayer
Offering and Offertory
Scripture Reading & Text
Revive Thy Work, O Lord
Exodus 13:3-10; 1 Cor. 5:1-8
The Preaching of the Gospel
“Living for Christ Our Passover Lamb”
*Song of Application # 537
Take Time to Be Holy
*God’s Parting Blessing
*Doxology # 731
Advanced Notice:
Men’s Leadership Training Course: All men high school age and older
are encouraged to attend. The first week of classes will begin on
Sunday, February 13, 1pm, with a duplicate class on Wednesday,
February 16, 7pm. Thereafter, classes will be held on the 2nd and 4th
Sundays (and subsequent Wednesdays) of each month through June.
Each class will last between 1.5 and 2 hours. We plan to spend the
first week discussing “The Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men”
by Richard D. Phillips (Reformation Trust Pub., 2010). Please read
pp. 3-154 (or pp. 55-154 if your time is short) prior to our first week
of classes. If you need a book, please notify Marshall Snodgrass.
Additional books of required reading are: “The Elder and His Work”
by David Dickson (P&R Pub., 2004); and “The New Testament Deacon:
The Church’s Minister of Mercy” (Lewis and Roth Pub., 1992).
We Have Not Known Thee As We Ought
Forgiveness in Christ
*Hymn of Preparation # 370
Next Week:
Fellowship Meal, 1pm. Food provided by the church.
Doxology
*Please stand if you are able.
All hymns are found in the Trinity Hymnal.
Missing Jesus in Religion
“As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him,
“Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful
buildings!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings?
There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be
thrown down.’” (Mark 13:1-2).
Picture yourself walking on a 34 acre, man-made mountain consisting of
stones 40 feet long, 10 feet wide, and 10 feet thick, and surrounded by walls
1 mile in perimeter. Then, as you focus your gaze upon Jesus, you catch a
glimpse of the Herodian Temple in all its spendor—17 stories of ornate
grandeur, and as long and wide. Had we been standing with the disciples in
the Temple court our lips would have uttered a similar redundancy. The
stones and buildings of the temple mount were magnificent, to say the least,
and all was built without cranes and electricity.
But Jesus, knowing our propensity to worship religious beauty,
interrupts the disciples’ idolatry with a prophecy about A.D. 70, the year
Titus would waltz into Jerusalem and leave the city and Temple in
shambles. What was Jesus doing? Jesus was warning us of the danger of
enthroning religious symbols and relics in our hearts at the expense of
Jesus Himself. You see, while the disciples marveled at the Temple, the
reality to which the Temple pointed stood right in front of them. God had
finally and permanently “Templed” among His people in the Person of Jesus
Christ, but even to His closest friends, Herod’s Temple appeared more
glorious than God’s Temple, just as Isaiah foretold (Isa. 53:2). Jesus’ glory
was concealed by ordinary flesh; Jesus was concealed in the scenery of
ordinary religious life.
It is a heart-wrenching reality that oftentimes the religious institutions
and practices designed to lead us into closer communion with Christ
actually take our gaze off Him. We marvel at eloquently spoken prayers
and strive to impress God with our own fluency, and so we spend our
prayers marveling at our prayers, and missing Christ altogether. We are
impressed with well-bound Bibles in the perfect translation, and so we
spend our time admiring the book itself and acclaiming the English
translators, but soon our soul atrophies because the Altogether Lovely
vanishes from our Bibles. We might even adore corporate worship and the
fellowship of the saints, and so we gaze upon the beauty of our order of
worship and the gathered saints, and suddenly our soul-nourishing
worship and fellowship are dismantled one stone after the next, until our
Sunday routine becomes absent spiritual power altogether. It happens so
subtly we seldom notice, but our heart feels the effects. As soon as we
substitute the worship of beautiful things designed to display God’s glory
for the worship of God, we commence down the destructive path of
worshiping beauty, and soon enough, since beauty cannot withstand the
weight of worship, beauty grows ugly and we are left in a world of
ugliness—with a ruined Temple and a devastated landscape.
There is only one way to avoid the horrendous pain of a life fraught
with idolatry: find Jesus Christ. You might have a hard time seeing Him, but
see him we must. He likely will not appear the most beautiful option, the
most entertaining choice, or the most aesthetically pleasing piece. He
probably will not jump out at you on the pages of the Scripture, and He
might be hidden behind all the earthly blessings (house, family, career,
health) for which you thank God in prayer. He might appear
inconsequential and even needless during your week, and the way in which
we must enthrone Him may appear inapplicable. We Americans demand
our religion as our coffee: Instant and easily accessible. But since Jesus
does not come “Instant” or in accessible, individual packets, you might find
fellowship with Him time-consuming and awkward.
But my brothers and sisters, Jesus is well-worth our time. The glory of
Christ is that God’s beauty has become accessible to us, touchable and
visible. Don’t let this accessibility sour His taste. Jesus Christ is sweet and
altogether lovely. His Person is beautiful to gaze upon. No longer do we go
to a beautiful building to deal with our sins; now we go to a Person. Gaze
upon His Cross-hung body, and your desire to worship prayer, worship,
fellowship, and church buildings will fade.
Gospel of Grace Church
For by grace you have been saved through faith.
And this is not your own doing;
it is the gift of God, not a result of works,
so that no one may boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9
Sunday School for Adults & Children
10:00 am Coffee and Fellowship
10:20 am Sunday School Classes
Sunday Worship
11:30 am
Fellowship Meals after Worship
1:00pm (1st & 3rd Sundays of each month)
Small Group Book Studies
2:00pm (1st & 3rd Sundays of each month)
Wednesday Prayer Meeting
6:30 pm in the fellowship hall
1001 N. National Ave.
Springfield, MO 65802
(417) 887-8944
www.gospelofgracechurch.com
**If you have pastoral needs or would like more information about
us, please speak with someone from our congregation, or contact
Zech Schiebout by phone @ (641) 780-8123 (cell), (417) 886-2129
(home) or by e-mail @ pastor@gospelofgracechurch.com. **