ORDER OF WORSHIP
ANNOUNCEMENT
Call To Worship
Psalm 107 : 1, 8
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever. 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His unfailing love and His wonderful deeds for mankind.
詩篇 107 : 1, 8
1「你們要稱謝耶和華，因他本為善，他的慈愛永遠長存！」8 但願人因耶和華的慈愛和他向人所行的奇事都稱讚他！
Worship Through Songs
Good day dear saints of the Lord—bearers of Christ’s name; in-dwelt by his Spirit.
The walk of faith is not an easy one. It is not only difficult because we struggle against the flesh, the world, and the devil, it is also because in the wisdom of God, the way He sanctifies us often brings us much pain and brokenness. In shaping us to become more like Jesus, God often gives us moments like those of Him who is called the ‘Man of Sorrows’ who is acquainted with grief—like Christ who even though He was The Son learned obedience through what He suffered.
There may be many facets as to why this must be so, but one obvious priority in God’s agenda for our transformation is the elimination of sinful Pride—that most detestable of sins. As C.S. Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity, once wrote, “it is Pride which has been the chief cause of misery in every nation and every family since the world began … pride always means enmity – it is enmity. And not only enmity between man and man, but enmity to God.
In God you come up against something which is in every respect immeasurably superior to yourself. Unless you know God as that – and, therefore, know yourself as nothing in comparison -you do not know God at all. As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”
Then, turning his attention towards the religious who profess allegiance to God, he continues, “That raises a terrible question. How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people”.
Here, Lewis highlighted humanity’s very pervasive propensity for self-promotion and self-delusion—the tendency to think too highly of ourselves and not with sober judgment. This is an especially insidious pitfall for the moral, the upright and the pious: for if the failures of the ‘morally weak’ may be so glaringly obvious as to negate any sense of self-congratulation on the part of the sinner, the ‘successes’ of the ‘morally strong’ can be the very source of temptation to fall into pride—to misplace the grounds of our worth before God on ourselves and no longer in God’s grace in Christ.
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble for pride comes before destruction and as a loving Father, He seeks our good, not our demise. In God’s determination to rid us from this cancerous evil, time and time again He sends along our lives painful but necessary reminders that there is only One that is truly great; only One that is truly good; only One that is truly worthy to be the Center of the Universe—Himself. And from this realization, and the liberating humility that it brings, we are held, embraced, and lifted up in due time by the mighty and loving hands of God—the only One truly worth being proud of and boasting about. Hallelujah!
‘Father God,
Who are we and what are our lives worth that You should be mindful of us? You have created us from dust, and we are only alive because You breathed your breath of life into us. We are held together by your sustaining power and continue to exist only because You allow us to do so.
We praise You not only because You are exceedingly great, but because You are also overwhelmingly good. Thank You for your graciousness especially when we fall. That though You know everything about us and discern the thoughts and intentions of our hearts, You chose not to count our sins against us—choosing instead to crown us with love and compassion. All because of Jesus.
Thank You that you not only hold our lives in your hand, You do so with utter kindness and painstaking care. Thank You that your love for us is not some far off mystical ideal with no real ramification in the world of pain and struggle we inhabit, but is as real as every beat of our hearts and as close as every breath that we breathe. It is our light in the darkness, our haven in the storms of life, and our only true hope through our many failings and stumblings.
You are worthy of our deepest gratitude and our highest adoration. You alone are God—the One in whom we humbly, yet confidently trust.
In Jesus Name, amen.’
Anthem
Creation Praise
Scripture Reading
For Rev. Alvin Rival
James 4 : 13 – 17
13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— 14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. 17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.
雅各書 4 : 13 – 17
13 嗐 ！ 你 們 有 話 說 ： 「 今 天 明 天 我 們 要 往 某 城 裡 去 ， 在 那 裡 住 一 年 ， 做 買 賣 得 利 。 」
14 其 實 明 天 如 何 ， 你 們 還 不 知 道 。 你 們 的 生 命 是 甚 麼 呢 ？ 你 們 原 來 是 一 片 雲 霧 ， 出 現 少 時 就 不 見 了 。
15 你 們 只 當 說 ： 「 主 若 願 意 ， 我 們 就 可 以 活 著 ， 也 可 以 做 這 事 ， 或 做 那 事 。 」
16 現 今 你 們 竟 以 張 狂 誇 口 ； 凡 這 樣 誇 口 都 是 惡 的 。
17 人 若 知 道 行 善 ， 卻 不 去 行 ， 這 就 是 他 的 罪 了 。
For Rev. Danny Reyes
1st Thessalonians 5 : 18
18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
帖撒羅尼迦前書 5 : 18
5 你 們 都 是 光 明 之 子 ， 都 是 白 晝 之 子 。 我 們 不 是 屬 黑 夜 的 ， 也 不 是 屬 幽 暗 的 。
Sermon
Rev. Alvin Rival
林永健牧師
English Translation
Baptism
Tithes And Offering
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