Sunday Morning Worship Service May 24, 2020

Well, good morning. It has been a long time since I have spoken to anybody or anything other than a camera.

And it is truly, it's truly wonderful. It's wonderful not to speak to a camera exclusively.

So, hello camera, those of you who are watching by live stream this morning. I'm glad you're able to tune in, but we're also very thankful for this opportunity for those who are here joining in the service today.

I was reflecting that it was the middle of March was the last time we gathered together.

And we were told it would be maybe three Sundays and then, you know, we would be able to get back together.

And then it was four more Sundays before we'd be able to get back together. And then it was maybe at the end of the year, you might be able to get back together.

So, I'm very grateful for our president who recognized our right to assemble and our freedom to be able to practice our faith and has given us the freedom today to be able to assemble like this without,

I don't think we have to fear that our cars are going to get towed from the parking lot. We're not in Chicago, but nevertheless.

So, I'm just so grateful that you're here and I trust that your heart is rejoicing for our time together.

So, when you came in, you picked up an order of service for today, a couple of announcements.

You can read those that are there. A couple of things to add to that. We will keep the option open of outdoor services just to make things easy for everybody.

And I mean everybody in the political thing as well as everything else.

That was not possible today. We couldn't get the equipment necessary to have an outdoor service today.

We may do that next week. We're just, we'll take it week at a time. So, you get these remind notices that are sent out and we will send those out and give details about what's happening in the

Sunday morning service. But what we're planning at this point is for the, probably for the summer, we'll just meet like this,

Sunday mornings at 1030 and we'll then later add additional services as time goes on and as it becomes freer, shall we say, and more accessible for us.

On the back of that order of service, I included for you the first quarter financial report that's just,

I said I'd get that to you and didn't know that we would be able to get that to you in person, but there you have it.

And you can look at that and you can see how God has graciously provided for the work of the ministry even during this time of shutdown.

Psalm 47 verses 1 and 2 say, clap your hands all ye peoples, shout to God with shouts of joy for the

Lord, the most high is to be feared, a great king over all the earth. One of the things that you cannot do virtually is fulfill the exhortation of Colossians 3 16.

This call to worship, to clap our hands all peoples, is not something that is meaningfully done in your living room while you're watching on a computer.

But that also prohibits us, that separation, that virtual worship prohibits us from fulfilling the exhortation of Colossians 3 16 given to the church where Paul writes, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the

Lord. I have missed hearing from you and your exhortation and your encouragement and your admonition through song.

And I trust that even though we've been able to meet quote unquote virtually and get information by way of the live streaming, we have not been able to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

We can do that today. So Jim's going to come and lead us in our opening hymn, Behold Our God.

Thank you, Pastor. Isn't it good to be in the house of the Lord? Amen.

And that has more meaning to it now that you know, when you've been separated from something and something's been taken away, how much more you appreciate it.

I must say that I put my flag out today, of course, tomorrow's

Memorial Day, and I always put it out then. But I put it out today because it also, it recognizes the freedoms that we've been deprived of in a sense.

And, and it also reflects on the First Amendment, you know, and, you know, it was when the founders made all the amendments, who did they put first?

It was God, really, you think about that, like the 10 commandments and God's commandments, the first four, and then the rest followed.

But it was just like the amendments, but didn't our founders design it that way, in a sense off of the

Word of God. And, and I'm just excited, as Pastor said, I reiterate just the freedoms that we've been, that have been sacrificed.

And yet, you know, you can't hold back God's people. And, and that those these things that were founded upon,

I, that's why I wore this little, little flag, not just so much with the country, but upon what the country was founded upon.

And that's the Word of God. Take your, your little handouts, if you would. Behold our

God, and let's all sing together. And it's going to be good to hear your voices as well.

Let's all stand, please. Our Father and our

God, we do bow before you today. We kneel before you in our hearts, praising you and thanking you for all that you are to us, the

God who reigns supreme. God who reigns over every king, over every government, over every nation, and who reigns in our hearts and lives today.

We worship and praise you today for all that you are to us. We thank you for your word and for the stability and the strength and encouragement that gives to our hearts.

And we pray that you administer to our hearts through your word today, as we have gathered for that purpose.

This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you. You may be seated. I'll read

Psalm 46, if you have a copy of scriptures to follow along. Psalm 46.

And if you would join with me, reading in unison, beginning in verse 8. I will read verses 1 through 7, and then join with me at verses 8 to the end of the psalm.

Psalm 46. The psalmist writes,

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the

Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved.

God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved.

He uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us, the

God of Jacob is our refuge. Join me. Come, the works of the

Lord. What desolations he hath made in the earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth.

He breaketh the bow and cutteth the spear and sunder. He burneth the chariot in the fire.

Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

God add his blessing to the reading of his word. Next hymn on the next side of your song sheet is a new hymn to us.

When I picked this out, I did not know we would be able to sing it together. Simple tune and a simple hymn, but I think it worked well with the emphasis of the day.

So Kelly, I'm going to ask Kelly to play it for us and then Jim will come and lead us in that hymn. Okay, let's all sing that together.

All four verses. Give to the winds thy fears. Give to the winds thy fears.

As we pray together this week, we want to remember the shutters,

Larry and Emily and their family, missionaries of the week serving in Bolivia. The last

I heard, they were planning to be able to return to the States on the 31st of this month.

So just a few days away. I have not heard whether they are able to get out of the country and to get into the

States, but that was the last plan on their part. So I want to pray for them and pray for their continued plans for the future as Larry will be looking for a means of employment in this change in their lives and so forth.

Tomorrow, of course, is Memorial Day. We want to thank God for those who have given their lives for our country.

I just this morning saw a video and the background music was

Amazing Grace on bagpipes. This is always very moving anyway. It was just showing scene after scene of flag -draped caskets of soldiers who have given their lives for our country and then just loved ones who mourned those losses.

We often lose sight of that if we haven't been touched by it personally, how much these individuals gave for our freedom.

And after we pray together this morning, our prayer together, we'll then share the

Lord's table together. So have that cup ready, give some instructions regarding that.

But let's look to the Lord in prayer, shall we? So again, our

Father and our God, we thank you that we can give to the winds our fears.

We can trust you. And knowing that through all that might so rattle us and shake our confidence, there is the unyielding truth of your word.

There is the unbending presence of your Spirit within us, the unwavering, unwavering confidence that we can have in your promises, in your sovereignty, in your power.

So Father, I pray today that whether it is in life or in death, that your steadfast truth would dispel those fears and tremblings of our heart.

We thank you today for the privilege of reassembly. We thank you for being able to sing together and to admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

We thank you for the privilege of praying together, uniting our hearts in one place, in one room, as we bow in prayer and praise and thanksgiving.

Father, we do confess to you today how easily we have been rattled in these last weeks.

We have been, we've allowed ourselves to be overcome with anxiety and set times with anger and fretfulness, and there is certainly more to come that could do those very same things within us.

We confess that in such times we forget about the deeper truths, the greater knowledge that we have of you are

God and of your Word. Forgive us that forgetfulness, we pray. Father, we do pray today for Bob Klein and we ask for your continued grace and strength in his life.

Give a peace of mind and heart that only you can give, a peace that passes all understanding. As he has his biopsy on Tuesday, we pray that you would give clear indication of the need and direction for the days ahead.

We pray particularly today, Father, for those who are shut in and can't get out if they want to, and we think particularly of Jeannie Ludwick and Jerry Sailors, Sue Cherry, Dean Kinnaman, these individuals who love you and love the church, and so many times in the course of their life, week after week, faithfully they would be gathered together with God's people, and now that's simply not possible.

Please give them grace and strength in these days. Father, we continue to pray that you would protect our bodies from illness, protect our hearts from restless anxiety, protect our minds from fretful speculation and wasteful obsession.

We pray, Father, that you would guide our lawmakers and we pray that you would humble the proud and you would give grace to the meek.

We pray that righteousness would be upheld, that wickedness would be defeated in the streets.

We pray for those who want to ruin and undermine the freedoms that have been so dear to us through the decades.

I pray that you would defeat those efforts. We pray for the courts that they would rule justly and rule according to the intention of the founders of this country and the constitution upon which it stands.

We pray, Father, that truth would triumph, that righteousness would reign, that justice would prevail.

We pray that your kingdom would come, that your will would be done, and we ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. And so tomorrow we are, it's a day that's been set aside to remember those who have given their lives for our freedoms as American citizens and it's the right thing to do.

Sacrifices have been profound and how much more profound could it be that one gives his life for his fellow countrymen?

What could be more profound? Well, what we want to remember now, the one who gave his life for us, who sacrificed his body and his blood, shedding his blood on the cross, allowing his body to be broken, that we might be free not just as we live in a country, but we might be free from bondage to sin, from the curse of sin, and might be free for all eternity.

So if you participate in the Lord's Table, you have trusted Christ as your Savior and have been baptized and have picked up one of these little communion cup things to join in with us.

The process, I think, is very simple. We did this before. You lift off the top seal and underneath that seal is a little wafer.

And on that night in which he was betrayed, the Lord took a loaf of bread with his disciples, reclining a table around him, and they were not at all socially distanced.

They were close enough that they could take a chunk of that bread and then they would take the take the loaf and pass it to the next and so forth around the table.

And in taking that bread and breaking it, the Lord said, this is my body which is broken for you.

Take and eat. And in doing so, we do remember today that our

Lord gave his body to be broken and slain on a cross for our sins.

And after the bread was taken and the disciples ate that morsel of bread, the

Lord took a cup, one cup, and in that cup was the wine, red like his blood.

And he says, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. And so we can lift off the next layer of this little cup.

And I hope we do so without causing grape juice stains on our clothing.

But there was no such worries. They took that cup and they passed it around. And the Lord Jesus says, this cup is a new covenant in my blood.

Drink you all of it. This do it in remembrance of him.

And he said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death until he come.

One of the joys that we have as a gathered church is when we can break the bread together and we can share the cup together and remember together what our

Savior has done for us. Let's give him thanks for it. And so our Father and our

God, we do thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and his great sacrifice in our behalf.

Bless these thoughts to our hearts. Bless this remembrance of his sacrifice for us.

Bless it to us we pray. In Jesus' name we ask it. Amen. Another hymn to sing, the song,

Lucky Saints, the sight is glorious. Jim's going to come and lead us in the four stanzas of this hymn.

Jim. Let's stand once again, if you would please, all together and we'll sing

Lucky Saints, the sight is glorious. All four verses together. I think you may be seated.

Our scripture reading this morning for message is Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1 and the first 11 verses.

I encourage you to follow along in your copy of scripture as I read Acts 1 verses 1 to 11.

This is, well the other day, Thursday, was this day of ascension. This is the

Sunday after that day and we want to focus on this final earthly act of the

Lord Jesus as he ascended into heaven. Acts 1 verse 1. The author is

Luke and he says the former treatise have I made the Otheophilus of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up after that he through the

Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen to whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs being seen of them 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he you have heard of me for John truly baptized with water but ye shall be baptized with the

Holy Ghost not many days hence when they therefore were come together they asked of him saying

Lord will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel and he said unto them it is not for you to know the times or the seasons which the father hath put in his own power but you shall receive power after that the

Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all

Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth and when he had spoken these things while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as he went up behold two men stood by them in white apparel which also said ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing up into heaven the same

Jesus which has taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you have seen him go into heaven the

Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word our father and our God I pray that through this passage you would help us to be focusing on what we ought to be focusing on we ask in Jesus name amen you have on your smartphone

I'm sure a camera have you and it's an autofocus thing right you

I mean you can I guess I don't know can you manually focus those things I've never tried to do that but I have noticed that um if I'm I've done this a few times like in my in my study there's in the winter time you know

I want to take a picture of the snowfall that has just come or something of that nature and I'll go up to the window and go to take a picture and try to take a picture of what's outside the window and you know the snow or whatever out there and the camera wants to focus on the screen you've seen that you've had that happen uh when you've tried to take a picture or something that's stuck on the window you know particles of dirt or whatever so the camera doesn't focus on what

I want it to focus on I've had that happen with a regular camera you know the digital camera whatever that has the autofocus thing set

I'm wanting to focus taking a picture of my wife for example and the autofocus wants to focus on something beyond her or maybe

I want to take a picture of something beyond and it focuses on something near and you have to kind of horse around with a little bit well one of our tendencies

I think is to easily lose focus to end up focusing on something that is near something that is right at hand rather than focusing on what we ought to be looking at what we ought to be focusing on and this was certainly the case here in this passage of scripture and we're going to see this especially in the latter half of the text that we're looking at today but I think the whole passage is a passage where Jesus is spending the uh the days the 40 days after the resurrection to get the disciples to focus where they ought to be focused what they ought to be focused on and and by the way just pardon me for letting this uh for letting this digression come in here

I should have explained this at the beginning of the service but I'm looking out and I'm seeing real people and I'm seeing paper people and I meant to explain that at the beginning

I've gotten so used to seeing the paper people that it just kind of slipped my mind at the beginning of the service but I I wanted to leave those up Jim's Jim said because should

I take those things down before Sunday morning I said no leave them up let people see where they're supposed to be sitting and no actually where where they normally sit and he they tried when they set these things up tried to put them in places where people normally sit and then we block off half the pews so you couldn't sit where you normally sit anyway but anyway we thought we thought you might enjoy that so here

I was focusing on the message and I got my focus changed my focus got shifted to the paper people and isn't this just like us so easily our focus is diverted it's it's it's turned away from it it focuses away from what we ought to be zeroing in on and and on looking at something else so in this period between the resurrection and the ascension

Jesus is trying to get his disciples to focus on some key important critical things that they need that that we need to focus on and he wants them to focus on these things before he actually ascends so incidentally in this chapter verses 1 to 5 take place over a period of 39 of those 40 days and then verses 6 to 11 seems to take place all on one day the 40th day the day of the ascension and so here we are a couple thousand years after the events of Acts chapter 1 and we still need this message we still need this challenge from Jesus to be sure we're focused in the right direction and we need to be focusing on these things because they're vital they're vital to the message and the ministry of the church and its members so what are these things well first of all in verse 3 and we've we've kind of emphasized this uh last week

I believe it was in the morning message but we looked at this passage as well then but in verse 3

Jesus wants you to be convinced that he's alive he wants you to be convinced that he's alive now it's one thing to it's one thing to say that as part of our creed you know

I believe that Jesus rose again the third day and and it's easy to say that and it's easy to to know that up in our head but but he wants that to be burned into the heart and we know that because Jesus otherwise

Jesus could have risen from the dead and gone right ahead to right on to heaven but he wanted to burn into the hearts of the disciples his followers that he is alive and he he burned this into their heart verse 3 tells us through many infallible proofs and we'll not take the time to go back and look at any of them but but Luke's gospel his earlier writing that he speaks of in verse 1 this former treatise he actually itemized several ways that Jesus proved that he had risen from the dead he appeared physically to the disciples on numerous occasions he spoke to them face to face in in these different settings he ate with them he provided breakfast for them we saw in gospel of john he showed his scars to them he he did so multiple times and so through these many infallible proofs he wanted to convince his disciples that he had literally physically risen from the dead and he convinced his disciples and he wants to convince us that he is indeed alive because that resurrection is absolutely vital to the message that we have to share what is that message the message of the gospel the message of what