ORDER OF WORSHIP
Call To Worship
Psalm 138 : 1 – 2
1 I will praise you, O Lord, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing Your praise. 2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple and will praise Your name for Your unfailing love and Your faithfulness, for You have so exalted Your solemn decree that it surpasses Your fame.
詩篇 138 : 1 – 2
1 我要一心稱謝你，在諸神面前歌頌你。2 我要向你的聖殿下拜，為你的慈愛和誠實稱讚你的名；因你使你的話顯為大，過於你所應許的。
Worship Through Songs
We live in a world that by and large abides by the dictum of Quid Pro Quo—which in Latin means ‘something for something’. It is simply natural, common-sensical, and beneficial to society, for people to relate and transact in a mutual give-and-take fashion. ‘Tit for tat’; ‘a favor for a favor’; ‘I scratch your back, and you scratch mine’.
From the sweeping strokes of world economics to the intimate intricacies of personal relationships, ‘something-for-something’ is the implicit norm—between nations; between legal parties; between ordinary folks like you and me. The unspoken maxim of ‘I’ll be good to you if you’ll be good to me’; ‘I’ll love you if you love me’; ‘I’ll do my part as long as you do yours’, is sensibly standard and socially stabilizing.
What then, are we to make of the radical and outrageous love of Jesus—a love that goes against the grain of conventional wisdom and normal relational economics? When Jesus not only commanded but demonstrated, at great personal cost, love for the undeserving; the unlovable; and even enemies, He practically redefined for the rest of the world the meaning of love.
Jared C. Wilson, in his book Love Me Anyway, described it this way…
“Jesus loves all the wrong people. People who can offer him nothing. People who cannot love him the way he loves them. People who hate him. He doesn’t seem hindered at all by their lovelessness or their unloveliness. He loves them so much, in fact, that he very often puts himself in their position, stooping to their level, touching their wounds, embracing their pain. He ends up loving so much that he takes their shame upon himself, even their sin and the condemnation it deserves. He loves all the way to the cross. And as the most popular Bible verse in the history of the world tells us,
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
There is no greater love than this (15:13).”
Jesus redefined the meaning of love. He redefined it not only in objective fact, but in subjective experience as well—for us who receive and respond to his love. He not only showed us God’s ideal, He also empowers us to realize that ideal by the power of the gospel.
Elyse M. Fitzpatrick and Dennis E. Johnson, in Counsel from the Cross, wrote,
“The gospel changes everything about us. Most particularly, it changes how we love and treat others. Soaking ourselves in the astounding love of God for us, weak and sinful as we are, will cause us to become people who love. The pure, undefiled Prince of heaven, Jesus Christ, was called a friend of “tax collectors and sinners” (Matt. 11:19). It should be obvious that he loves sinners, because he has loved us.
Living in the light of this truth will enable us to love. It will remove all our self-righteousness and craving for respect, it will free us to lay down our lives and not keep a running tally of who sins most (or who serves most!), and it will make us patient and gentle.”
The gospel, when allowed to infuse and permeate all of life, will make us patient and gentle; kind and forgiving—as Jesus is. It will transform us into the masterpieces God meant us to be—reflections of his goodness in a broken and hurting world.
In the same way that we are able to love because He first loved us, we are able to be good because He has first, and has always, been good to us. Thus, we can love even the unlovable and the unloving, and can be good even to those who wish us ill because this is how Christ himself treated us— loving us when we were at our worst and giving us his best when all we could give him was shame and heartache.
God’s love for us is never quid pro quo nor his goodness economical. As an integral part of his character, his kindness has always been uncaused, eternal and infinite, pouring down on us lavishly, extravagantly, and unconditionally. Taste and see once more that the Lord is Good.
‘Merciful God and Abba,
You looked beyond the hardness and the hate
To touch the broken child within
Your goodness, unbounded and undeterred
Broke the chains asunder
Made this rebel heart surrender
And freed my heart to love.
In and through Christ our Lord, amen.’
Anthem
Be Strong and Take Courage
Scripture Reading
Galatians 5 : 22- 23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
加拉太書 5 : 22 – 23
22 聖 靈 所 結 的 果 子 ， 就 是 仁 愛 、 喜 樂 、 和 平 、 忍 耐 、 恩 慈 、 良 善 、 信 實 、
23 溫 柔 、 節 制 。 這 樣 的 事 沒 有 律 法 禁 止 。
Sermon
Dr. Gerardo Lisbe, Jr.
中文翻譯
Tithes And Offering
If you are led by the Lord to give for the purpose He has placed in your heart as a way of sharing your blessings or giving thanks to the Lord, you can make a deposit on any of our church’s bank accounts.
Kindly click here for more information.
Response Song
Zoom Links
Contact Numbers
