1 May 2022
Call to Worship: Psalm 105:1-3
Opening Hymn: 236 “To God Be the Glory”
Confession of Sin
O great and everlasting God, Who dwells in unapproachable light, Who searches and knows the thoughts and intentions of the heart; We confess that we have not loved You with all our heart, nor with all our soul, nor with all our mind, nor with all our strength; Nor our neighbors as ourselves. We have loved what we ought not to have loved; We have coveted what is not ours; We have not been content with Your provisions for us. We have complained in our hearts about our family, about our friends, about our health, about our occupations, about Your church, and about our trials. We have sought our security in those things which perish, rather than in You, the Everlasting God. Chasten, cleanse, and forgive us, through Jesus Christ, who is able for all time to save us who approach You through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for us. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon: Psalm 103:11-13
Psalm of Preparation: Psalm 4 “Give Ear, God of My Righteousness”
Old Covenant Reading: Deuteronomy 8:1-3
New Covenant Reading: James 1:12-15
Sermon: Misconstruing the Gift of Testing
Hymn of Response: 245 “Great is Thy Faithfulness”
Confession of Faith: Apostles Creed (p. 851)
Doxology (Hymn 568)
Closing Hymn: 425 “How Sweet and Awesome is the Place”
Evening Service
Hymns: Psalm 100B, 181, 229
OT: Psalm 100
NT: 1 Peter 2:1-10
Sermon: The Lord is Good!
Suggested Preparation
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Monday (4/25) read and discuss James 1:12-15
James 1:12–15 (ESV)
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Craig Blomberg and Mariam Kamell write:
Even when believers perceive nothing good coming from affliction in this life, they can look forward to a magnificent eternal compensation for their suffering. If vv. 2–4 do not unambiguously refer to the eschaton, v. 12 does. As we saw with vv. 2–4, the most pressing trials James’s community faces are elucidated in 4:13–5:18 (see above, pp. 49–50). It is quite possible that some of the poor, exploited Christians whom James addresses will never find justice within the fallen systems of this world. They can, however, count on the eternal, all-loving, and entirely just God of the universe to provide complete redress in the age to come (cf. 4:12). First, though, they must respond properly by continuing to trust him during the tough times of the present.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 106. What do we pray for in the sixth petition?
A. In the sixth petition, which is, And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, we pray that God would either keep us from being tempted to sin, or support and deliver us when we are tempted.
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Tuesday (4/26) read and discuss James 1:9-12
James 1:9–12 (ESV)
9 Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, 10 and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. 11 For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. 12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
John Calvin writes:
But the rich, in that he is made low, or, in his lowness. He has mentioned the particular for the general; for this admonition pertains to all those who excel in honour, or in dignity, or in any other external thing. He bids them to glory in their lowness or littleness, in order to repress the haughtiness of those who are usually inflated with prosperity. But he calls it lowness, because the manifested kingdom of God ought to lead us to despise the world, as we know that all the things we previously greatly admired, are either nothing or very little things. For Christ, who is not a teacher except of babes, checks by his doctrine all the haughtiness of the flesh. Lest, then, the vain joy of the world should captivate the rich, they ought to habituate themselves to glory in the casting down of their carnal excellency.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 107. What doth the conclusion of the Lord’s prayer teach us?
A. The conclusion of the Lord’s prayer, which is, For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever, Amen, teacheth us to take our encouragement in prayer from God only, and in our prayers to praise him, ascribing kingdom, power and glory to him. And in testimony of our desire, and assurance to be heard, we say, Amen.
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Wednesday (4/27) read and discuss Deuteronomy 8:1-3
Deuteronomy 8:1–3 (ESV)
1 “The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
John Calvin writes:
And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger. Inasmuch as they were sometimes made to suffer hunger in the wilderness, he proves the advantage of this discipline, because they thus learnt that the human race does not live by bread and wine alone, but by the secret power of God. For though all confess that it is through God’s goodness that the earth is fruitful, still their senses are so tied to the meat and drink, that they rise no higher, and do not acknowledge God as their Father and nourisher, but rather bind Him down to the outward means to which they are attached, as if His hand, of itself, and without instruments, could not effect or supply anything. Their perception, therefore, that the fruits of the earth are produced by God, is but a cold notion, which speedily vanishes, and does not cling to their memory. The power of God, as well as His goodness, is indeed abundantly manifested in the use of His creatures, which we naturally enjoy; but the depravity of the human mind causes that the testimonies of it act like a veil to obscure that bright light. Besides, the majority of mankind think of God as if banished afar off, and dwelling in inactivity as if He had resigned His office in heaven and earth; and hence it arises, that trusting in their present abundance, they implore not His favour, nay, that they pass it by as needless; and, when deprived of their accustomed supplies, they altogether despair, as if God’s hand alone were insufficient for their succour. Since, then, men do not sufficiently profit by the guidance and instruction of nature, but rather are blinded in their view of God’s works, it was desirable that in this miracle (of the manna) a standing and manifest proof should be given, that men do not only live upon God’s bounty, when they eat bread and drink wine, but even when all supplies fail them. Although there be some harshness in the words, yet the sense is clear, that men’s life consists not in their food, but that God’s inspiration suffices for their nourishment.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.
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Thursday (4/28) read and discuss Psalm 100:1-5
Psalm 100 (ESV)
A Psalm for giving thanks. 1 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2 Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3 Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5 For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Derek Kidner writes:
The command, Serve the Lord, is parallel by Come into his presence, which is a reminder that an act of worship is well named a ‘service’. It is the first response we owe Him—and not, in either sense of the word, the last. How far it reached is shown in Romans 12:1, where nothing short of a living sacrifice counts as ‘worship’. This is the word which the Greek Old Testament used for a ‘service’ in the formal sense…. But in Hebrew as in English, service is indivisible; it is a word which leaves no gap or choice between worship and work.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
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Friday (4/29) read and discuss 1 Peter 2:1-10
1 Peter 2:1–10 (ESV)
1 So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. 2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation— 3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
R. C. Sproul writes:
We are not just a spiritual house; we are a priesthood. This passage was very dear to Martin Luther. When he spoke about the priesthood of all believers, he was not saying that there is no distinction in the church between clergy and laity; the New Testament lays the foundation for those distinctions. Luther was saying that the priesthood of the New Testament is given to the whole Christian community.
In the Old Testament, the basic function fo the priest was to offer up sacrifices to God in keeping with the sacrificial system of the old covenant. The sacrifices that the priests offered were physical sacrifices, animals and grain offerings. We are a different kind of priesthood, a spiritual priesthood, in which each believer is called to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God. At the very heart of worship is the concept of the offering of sacrifices. From the very beginning, with Cain and Abel, God’s people brought their offerings to God as a sacrifice.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires of man.
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Saturday (4/30) read and discuss James 1:12-15
James 1:12–15 (ESV)
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Craig Blomberg and Mariam Kamell write:
“Blessed” is sometimes translated as “happy,” for the sake of using more contemporary English (e.g., GNB). But this can too easily suggest an emotion (recall comments on 1:2). Emotional happiness may be the last thing we can conjure up when we face trials! Rather, the word here means “fortunate”—because of the coming reward of eternal life. But we may have to persevere for a prolonged period of time until we have passed whatever test God has for us and become “approved” (NASB) or shown to be “genuine” (NET). At the same, he always makes his power available to help us, through his indwelling Spirit, so that when we do respond properly, it is still by God’s grace. When we do not, we cannot legitimately protest that we had no alternative (cf. 1 Co 10:13).
Our reward, however, makes perseverance the only logical response to trials. The “crown of life” represents one of five “crown” metaphors found in the epistles, all of which refer to unending, perfect paradise in the company of God, Christ, and all the redeemed. The other four speak of an incorruptible crown (1 Co 9:25), a crown of rejoicing (1 Th 2:19), a crown of righteousness (2 Ti 4:8), and a crown of glory (1 Pe 5:4). In each case, the context makes it clear that these are not rewards above and beyond eternal life itself, but vivid metaphors for the perfections of the life to come.
MEMORY WORK
Q. 4. What is God?
A. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.