February 2nd 2018.

February 2nd 2018

Prelude for Worship Handbells

Welcome Daniel Palmer

Text “Welcome” to

Victory in Jesus CCLI #606984

How a Savior came from Glory How He gave His life on Calvary
I heard an old old story How a Savior came from Glory How He gave His life on Calvary To save a wretch like me

I heard about His groaning Of His precious blood’s atoning
Then I repented of my sin And won the victory

He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood
O victory in Jesus My Savior forever He sought me and bought me With His redeeming blood

He loved me ere I knew Him And all my love is due Him
He plunged me to victory Beneath the cleansing flood

I heard about His healing Of His cleansing power revealing
How He made the lame To walk again And caused the blind to see

And then I cried “Dear Jesus Come and heal my broken spirit”
And somehow Jesus Came and brought To me the victory

He has built for me in glory
I heard about a mansion He has built for me in glory And I heard about The streets of gold Beyond the crystal sea

About the angels singing And the old redemption story
And some sweet day I’ll sing up there The song of victory

Jesus Shall Reign

His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till suns shall rise and
Jesus shall reign where’er the sun Does his successive journeys run; His kingdom stretch from shore to shore, Till suns shall rise and set no more.

The weary find eternal rest,
Blessings abound where'er He reigns; The prisoner leaps to lose his chains; The weary find eternal rest, And all the sons of want are blessed.

Dwell on His love with sweetest song;
People and realms of every tongue Dwell on His love with sweetest song; And infant voices shall proclaim Their early praises to His Name.

Let every creature rise and bring Blessing and honour to our King; Angels descend with songs again, And earth repeat the loud amen!

Offering Handbells

02/11/2018 Today let’s pray for Ruth as she talks to people in Southeast Asia about the one true God who sent Jesus Christ to free us of such fears and to give us hope for daily living.

Today, let’s pray for Corey and ask the Lord to bless him and his family as they turn to their new assignment!

The Longer I Serve Him Singing Saints

Mark 4:1–20 He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. 2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,

Mark 4:1–20 3 “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.

Mark 4:1–20 6 And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.

Mark 4:1–20 8 Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 9 And He was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Mark 4:1–20 10 As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. 11 And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables,

Mark 4:1–20 12 so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” 13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?

Mark 4:1–20 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.

Mark 4:1–20 16 In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.

Mark 4:1–20 18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

Mark 4:1–20 20 And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”

Ears to Hear Parables explain and confirm Kingdom life for those who are inside with Jesus, but they repel those who refuse Jesus; they reveal God’s truth to the believing heart and conceal it from the heart that refuses to believe.

Ears to Hear Where there is no soil for the seed, the seed is taken (4). Where there is little soil for the seed, the seed cannot take root and the sun kills the seedling (5–6). Where the soil is compromised by weeds, there is no harvest (7).

Up to verse 7, things are not going well.
Ears to Hear Up to verse 7, things are not going well.

Ears to Hear God is looking for a bountiful harvest of His Kingdom among all peoples and in all places.

Ears to Hear Then comes verse 8, seeds fall not beside the road or on the rocky ground or among the thorns but into the good soil.

Ears to Hear Whatever this parable means, it has something to do with the “mystery of the Kingdom of God” (11). Mystery refers to a knowledge of God and how God works that can only be known if God reveals the answer.

Ears to Hear To our questions, Jesus says, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (9).

Sermon in a Sentence To advance the Kingdom of God in the world, 1) we must keep on listening to what Christ says (1–9); 2) we must let the Word of Christ lead us to Christ alone (10–12), and 3) we must receive, be established by, and sow the gospel.

1. We must keep on listening to the Word of Christ (1–9).
Ears to Hear 1. We must keep on listening to the Word of Christ (1–9).

Ears to Hear A large crowd has gathered to listen to Jesus, but Jesus still commands them in verse 3 to “keep on listening.”

Ears to Hear Now imagine for a moment that you are in a large crowd of people listening to Jesus, and He keeps saying “keep on listening” and if you have ears to listen, keep on listening!

Ears to Hear Jesus is showing us there is a type of listening that is deeper than just listening, and this type of listening is required to be a part of the harvest of God’s Kingdom.

Ears to Hear The listening Jesus commands of us and calls us to moves beyond mere hearing.

2. We must let the Word of Christ lead us to Christ alone (10–12).
Ears to Hear 2. We must let the Word of Christ lead us to Christ alone (10–12).

Ears to Hear If you hear or listen to the Word of Christ but walk away thinking the message is about something other than your dependence upon Him, you are not yet listening as Christ commands us to listen.

Ears to Hear Jesus’s use of parables fulfills Isaiah 6:9–10 where the prophet speaks of those who would hear the good news and reject it.

Ears to Hear Jesus’ point is not that “those who are outside are denied the possibility of belief, but if they persist in their unbelief, they will not receive more evidence or revelation” (Akin, 88).

Ears to Hear “The parable of the sower is like the cloud that separated the fleeing Israelites from the pursuing Egyptians, bringing ‘darkness to one side and light to the other (Exod 14:20)’” (Edwards, 138).

Ears to Hear As Edwards writes, “Jesus’s parables confirm the states of people’s hearts: insiders who are with Jesus will be given the understanding of the mystery, and outsiders who are not with Jesus will be confirmed in their disbelief (Edwards, 134).

Ears to Hear The harvest is (8, 20) a sign of the in-breaking of the Kingdom of God, and even though much of the seed seems to be wasted, a bountiful harvest is on the way.

3. We must receive, be established by, and sow the gospel.
Ears to Hear 3. We must receive, be established by, and sow the gospel.

Ears to Hear The King of the Kingdom is the sower who sows the Word (14), and the Word will produce a harvest wherever it finds a genuinely receptive heart.

Three Types of Hearing that Fall Short of Hearing
In verse 15, we see that the soil of some hearts is hard.

In verse 15, we see that the soil of some hearts is hard. In v. 16–17, we see that the soil of some hearts is shallow.

Ears to Hear Do trials deepen my faith or destroy it? Does adversity shake my faith or strengthen it?

In verse 15, we see that the soil of some hearts is hard. In v. 16–17, we see that the soil of some hearts is shallow. In v. 18–19, we see that the soil of some hearts is distracted.

Ears to Hear You cannot be a part of God’s harvest if you neglect the weeds in your life.

Ears to Hear It is not praying a prayer or even bearing fruit for a while that is the mark of a true disciple; it is continuing to bear fruit.

Ears to Hear The ones who truly hear are not those who heard (past tense) the gospel but the ones who keep on hearing it (present tense, v. 20) day-by-day.

Ears to Hear The gospel must be planted in our hearts so much that our lives become planted in the gospel.

Ears to Hear When we accept Christ as our only hope, the Spirit gives us a hunger to keep on hearing the gospel because it is where we find hope.

Ears to Hear True disciples cannot separate what the word does in our hearts from what the word does in us and what we then do in the world.

Ears to Hear As the body of Christ on the earth, we now do what Jesus did for the disciples and what the church has done for the world down through the ages, we sow the gospel seed, because we know there is no power on the planet that can rival the power of the gospel.

Ears to Hear “It isn’t as though the farmer has lost his mind (by putting the seed on bad soil) but more likely that none of the soil around seems particularly good, so ‘in hopes that good soil might somewhere be found, he sows in every corner of the field.” (Justin the Martyr in Dialogue with Trypho 125.1–2).

Ears to Hear It is better to get the gospel out and fail than it is to fail to get out the gospel.

Ears to Hear Discipleship is not what we can make of ourselves, but allowing the Sower and the seed to produce a harvest of which we alone are incapable.” (Edwards, 130).

Ears to Hear “Despite discouraging odds, the harvest in Jesus’ ministry will be beyond compare” (Edwards, 130).

Ears to Hear Christ has given His Word, and it leads to hope in Christ alone. Do you know Him? Have you received Him? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Jesus Shall Reign

Postlude for Worship Martha Short

February 2nd 2018

Welcome Daniel Palmer

Text “Welcome” to

Jesus Shall Reign

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)
CCLI #606984

Amazing Grace How sweet the sound That saved A wretch like me I once was lost But now am found Was blind but now I see

T’was Grace that taught The hour I first believed
My heart to fear And Grace My fears relieved How precious did That Grace appear The hour I first believed

My chains are gone I've been set free My God my Savior
Has ransomed me And like a flood His mercy rains Unending love Amazing grace

His word my hope secures
The Lord has promised Good to me His word my hope secures He will my shield And portion be As long as life endures

The earth shall soon Dissolve like snow The sun forbear to shine But God Who called me here below Will be forever mine Will be forever mine You are forever mine

All Because of the Wonderful Cross
Sanctuary Choir

When I survey the wondrous cross Where the Prince of Glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

I sacrifice them to His blood.
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Death of Christ, my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.

On Calvary, He died on a tree. For me, He paid the cost.
My song will be eternally All because of the wonderful cross.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet, Sorrow and love flow mingled down. Did e’er such love and sorrow meet Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

On Calvary, He died on a tree. For me, He paid the cost.
My song will be eternally All because of the wonderful cross. All because of the wonderful cross, the wonderful cross!