The Lord’s Day

August 17, 2008

How blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways.

(Psalm 128:1)

  Prelude

  Apostolic Greeting

*Call to Worship                                        Psalm 104:33–35

I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;

I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

Let my meditation be pleasing to Him;

As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord.

Let sinners be consumed from the earth

And let the wicked be no more.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Praise the Lord!

*Gloria Patri                                                             No. 734

*Prayer of Invocation

*Hymn             Give to Our God Immortal Praise          No. 3

  Public Confession

Heavenly Father, in the name of our Savior, we ask that You would forgive us for speaking wrongly of others and for repeating things we heard. Forgive us for holding unkind thoughts while not seeking to build up those who are part of this church family. Forgive us for not always tended diligently to our responsibilities. And please forgive  us for those times we neglected Your Word while depending on our own wisdom.

  Words of Assurance                              Colossians 3:12, 13

As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.

  Response           O for a Closer Walk with God       (opposite page)

  Prayer for the Tithe and Offerings

  Collection of the Tithe and Offerings

*Doxology                                                                 No. 731

*Declaring Our Faith The Larger Catechism (195)[†]

What do we pray for in the sixth petition?

In the sixth petition (which is: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil), acknowledging that the most wise, righteous, and gracious God, for various holy and just ends, may so order things that we may be assaulted, foiled, and for a time led captive by temptations, we pray that God would so overrule the world and all in it, subdue the flesh, and restrain Satan, order all things, bestow and bless all means of grace, and quicken us to watchfulness in the use of them, that we and all His people may by His providence be kept from being tempted to sin; or, if tempted, by His Spirit enabled to stand in the hour of temptation; or when fallen, raised again and recovered out of it.

  Pastoral Prayer

*Responsive Reading                                   Proverbs 30:1-16

The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, the oracle. The man declares to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal: Surely I am more stupid than any man, and I do not have the understanding of a man.

Neither have I learned wisdom, nor do I have the knowledge of the Holy One.

Who has ascended into heaven and descended?

Who has gathered the wind in His fists?

Who has wrapped the waters in His garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is His name or His son’s name?

Surely you know!

Every word of God is tested;

He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.

Do not add to His words or He will reprove you,

And you will be proved a liar.

Two things I asked of You, do not refuse me before I die:

Keep deception and lies far from me, give me neither poverty nor riches;

Feed me with the food that is my portion, that I not be full and deny You and say, “Who is the Lord?”

Or that I not be in want and steal, and profane the name of my God.

Do not slander a slave to his master,

Or he will curse you and you will be found guilty. 

There is a kind of man who curses his father and does not bless his mother.

There is a kind who is pure in his own eyes, yet is not washed from his filthiness.

There is a kind—oh how lofty are his eyes!

And his eyelids are raised in arrogance.

There is a kind of man whose teeth are like swords

And his jaw teeth like knives, to devour the afflicted from the earth and the needy from among men.

The leech has two daughters, “Give,” “Give.”

There are three things that will not be satisfied, four that will not say, “Enough”:

Sheol, and the barren womb, earth that is never satisfied with water,

And fire that never says, “Enough.”

*Hymn       I Greet Thee, Who My Sure Redeemer Art       No. 168

*Public Reading of the Word                             1 Timothy 5

*Prayer for the Ministry of the Word

  Sermon                                                    Matthew 22:1–14

  Hymn            At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing      No. 420

  Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper⁺

*Hymn        O Christ, Our Hope, Our Heart’s Desire No. 161

*Benediction

*Threefold Amen                                                      No. 740

* Congregation will please stand

⁺ Visitors: please see the note on the back of this bulletin

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