The Lord’s Day
June 22, 2008
Prelude
Apostolic Greeting
*Call to Worship Psalm 67
God be gracious to us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us,
That Your way may be known on the earth, Your salvation among all nations.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You will judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.
Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.
The earth has yielded its produce; God, our God, blesses us. God blesses us, that all the ends of the earth may fear Him.
*Gloria Patri No. 734
*Prayer of Invocation
*Hymn From All That Dwell Below the Skies No. 7
Public Confession
O God, forgive us for straying from the path of righteousness. Forgive us for using our words to tear down, rather than to build up. Our speech is often without patience and charity.
Forgive us for our lack of compassion, kindness, and longsuffering. We sometimes fail to imitate our Savior in these matters. And forgive us for thinking of You wrongly as we have considered our circumstances.
Words of Assurance Titus 2:11-14
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
Response The Lord’s My Shepherd (facing page)
Prayer for the Tithe and Offerings
Collection of the Tithe and Offerings
*Doxology No. 731
*Declaring Our Faith The Larger Catechism (184, 185)
For what things are we to pray?
We are to pray for all things tending to the glory of God, the welfare of the church, our own or others’ good; but not for anything that is unlawful.
How are we to pray?
We are to pray with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins; with penitent, thankful, and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency, love, and perseverance, waiting upon Him, with humble submission to His will.
Pastoral Prayer
*Responsive Reading Proverbs 27:1-14
Do not boast about tomorrow,
For you do not know what a day may bring forth.
Let another praise you, and not your own mouth;
A stranger, and not your own lips.
A stone is heavy and the sand weighty,
But the provocation of a fool is heavier than both of them.
Wrath is fierce and anger is a flood,
But who can stand before jealousy?
Better is open rebuke than love that is concealed.
Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.
A sated man loathes honey,
But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.
Like a bird that wanders from her nest, so is a man who wanders from his home.
Oil and perfume make the heart glad, so a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend.
Do not forsake your own friend or your father’s friend,
And do not go to your brother’s house in the day of your calamity;
Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother far away.
Be wise, my son, and make my heart glad, that I may reply to him who reproaches me.
A prudent man sees evil and hides himself,
The naive proceed and pay the penalty.
Take his garment when he becomes surety for a stranger; and for an adulterous woman hold him in pledge.
He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, it will be reckoned a curse to him.
*Hymn That Man Is Blest Who, Fearing God No. 558
*Public Reading of the Word 1 Thessalonians 5
*Prayer for the Ministry of the Word
Sermon
Hymn As the Hart Longs for Flowing Streams No. 662
Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper+
*Hymn O God beyond All Praising No. 660
*Benediction
*Threefold Amen No. 740
* Congregation will please stand
+ Visitors: please see the note on the back of this bulletin