Grace Church Life

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Sunday Recap and Looking Ahead: June 5, 2016

Here’s a quick look at our gathering this past week and a look ahead to this coming Sunday.

Call to Worship – Larry began our time reading from I began our time by reading from 1 Chronicles 16:23-25, calling the church to sing to the Lord for he is indeed great and greatly to be praised.

Singing – We then sang unaccompanied together Thomas Ken’s 17th century doxology, Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow. We immediately followed this the Greater Than We Can Imagine, declaring his glory and his marvelous works through song.

Confession – When we view God in his glory and greatness we are confronted with our weakness and sin. Often we take time as a church to confess our sins corporately through a song, scripture reading, or prayer. This past Sunday we used the song, Have Mercy on Me, to express our sinfulness and need for God’s mercy.

Scripture Reading – This time of corporate confession was followed by a congregational scripture reading. We read together Psalm 103:8-12. The Lord is merciful and gracious.

Responding in Song – I then introduced a new song titled, His Mercy is More. The title is taken from a line of a John Newton letter in which he states, “Our sins are many, but His mercies are more: our sins are great, but His righteousness is greater: we are weak, but He is power.” This song is penned by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa and will soon be recorded. Verse 1 reads as follows:
What love could remember, no wrongs we have done
Omniscient, all-knowing, he counts not their sum
Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore
Our sins they are many, His mercy is more
We then sang together Before the Throne of God Above, being encouraged by the great hope we have in work of Christ on our behalf.

Pastoral Prayer - After singing, I had everyone sit down and we spent around 5-7 minutes in prayer as a church. I began with the words from Daniel 9:18-19, and then prayed for those suffering physically in our midst, government leaders in our area, Redemption City Church in Frederick, MD, the Sovereign Grace Pastor’s College students who recently graduated, our sister church in Nassau, Bahamas: Kingdom Life Church, and the preaching of God’s Word.

Offering and Announcements - I then welcomed our visitors and led the church in giving tithes and offerings, and made a few announcements.

Preaching - While dismissing children under 10 who were with us for the first half of the service, we briefly greeted one another as Larry Malament came to preach God’s Word to us. He preached the first sermon in our series on Colossians, addressing us from Colossians 1:1-2. Larry said, “We must learn from the Colossians the centrality of Jesus in our lives that we might better see Christ and live the life he has called us to.” He concluded by looking to the grace and peace that is ours in Christ Jesus. You can listen to the sermon here.

Responding in Song – Often as I listen to a sermon a song springs to mind early on that I think will work well in response. As I listened, nothing had really stuck out to me. During the last few minutes of the sermon I was looking through various songs when Kristine, my wife, looked at me and whispered, “Of course we’re doing Grace and Peace.” I said, “Good idea.” So we responded to Larry’s sermon by singing Grace and Peace.

Benediction - After concluding this song, Larry sent the church off with the words of Numbers 6:24-26.

Looking Ahead

This coming week we plan on singing How Great is Your Faithfulness, Our Song From Age to Age, His Mercy is More, and 10,000 Reasons. I will be continuing our series in Colossians, picking up in verse 3 and following.

Please be anticipating and praying for our time together this coming week. Also, be praying for Larry Malament as he is in South Korea serving our sister church there.

See you Sunday!

Devon Kauflin