ORDER OF WORSHIP
ANNOUNCEMENT
Call To Worship
Psalm 125 : 1 – 2
1 Those who trust in the Lord are like Mount Zion, which cannot be shaken but endures forever. 2 As the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds his people both now and forevermore.
詩篇 125 : 1 – 2
1 倚靠耶和華的人好像錫安山，永不動搖。2 眾山怎樣圍繞耶路撒冷，耶和華也照樣圍繞他的百姓，從今時直到永遠。
Worship Through Songs
Good day church—recipients of the generous grace of God and objects of our Heavenly Father’s holy love.
The statement ‘God is good’ may have become ‘slogan-ish’ and cliché-like in recent years. Yet upon deeper consideration, the goodness of the One who is the author of Creation and the fountain of all existence, is foundational—not only for our faith, but for our very sanity as well.
Imagine for a moment: what if the Eternal One with infinite power, who possesses the ultimate authority over life and death, is in fact unkind, unjust, and malevolent? What if we are actually living under a hate-filled sky—under the capricious whims of an almighty but vicious deity? As terrifying a prospect as this may sound, the notion is not new. In fact, is this not the lie that Satan, the Accuser—not only of the brethren, but also of God himself—has peddled since the beginning of mankind? The lie that God is in fact not good and is thus undeserving of our love and trust.
Writing about God creating a universe filled with goodness and beauty, Alan Turner in the book ‘The 52 Greatest Stories of the Bible’, wrote…
“From out of the depths of His love, He spoke light into being, separating it from darkness. He created spiral galaxies filled with innumerable stars, related to each other by distances that can only be measured in light years. And out of all the billions of places He could have chosen, He focused His attention on one tiny planet, lavishing upon that blue marble His love and creativity, giving it sun, moon and stars … atmosphere, dry land and water … oxygen, cherry trees and grapevines, hammerhead sharks and falcons … wild boars and hairy apes and llamas. “So much beauty around us for just two eyes to see,” Rich Mullins used to sing.
And, at last, the pinnacle of God’s creation: humans. Perhaps He created us last as a testament to our inherent dignity—saving the best for last, so to speak. Or perhaps it was so we wouldn’t try to tell Him where to put things.
One thing is pretty clear: He didn’t need our help. It may sound trite and overused, but it’s true nonetheless: God is God and we are not. God created absolutely everything, and into this perfect garden of delight, He placed the man and eventually the woman, giving them dominion over everything else. God was to rule over them, and they were to rule over everything else.
There they lived in unbroken intimacy with God, with each other and with the world around them. It was an idyllic existence.
There was just one rule. Not 10 commandments. Not 613 laws. One rule. They were free to do anything they wanted except this one thing. Obeying the rule would serve as a reminder for them of Who was really in charge. Their Creator, the one who ruled over them, told them to avoid just one thing: Don’t eat the fruit of this one tree.
How hard could that be?”
Indeed how hard could that be? Yet, as the story unfolded in Genesis, our first parents did make that fateful choice to go down that one path explicitly forbidden by their good and beautiful Maker. Surrounded by every good and beautiful thing and intimately loved by the wellspring of goodness and beauty Himself, they chose to cherish the ugly seeds of doubt sown by the serpent until it bore the fruit of a dreadful forgetfulness of God—a total disregard of all they knew to be true and right and good. And thus, sin was born in the human heart. And the rest is history.
But praise be to our good and beautiful God—for He changes not. Our forgetfulness could not diminish him; nor could our rebellion dethrone him; nor could our waywardness change him. He continues to be good across the millennia of our estrangement and, in the fullness of his sovereign plan, sent his Son, Jesus Christ to bear our sin and die our death on the cross, that we might become alive to him once more: people in whom He himself dwells—reflecting his goodness and beauty to a broken and dying world. The Story of God written in his Word and in our lives bears witness to this simple yet resounding truth that we need to remember well regardless of time and circumstance: ‘The Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever.’
‘Dear Father of lights, Giver of all good things, from whom all blessings flow. You are good and have always been good. Grant us minds that do not forget Who you are and what you have done even when the ordinary comforts of life seem but distant memories. Grant us eyes that look only to You even when all around us is darkness and strife. Grant us ears to hear your voice amid the din of the world’s declarations, distractions, and deceptions. Finally, grant us hearts completely at rest in your unchanging ways and unshakable Word; hearts that continue in steadfast hope—assured that no matter how things may seem around us, we can take You at your word. Anchored in the certainty that You will never leave us nor forsake us, and that all You promised to do, You will definitely do. In Jesus’ name. Amen’
Anthem
Bow The Knee
Scripture Reading
James 1 : 13 – 18
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
雅 各 書 1 : 13 – 18
13 人 被 試 探 ， 不 可 說 ： 「 我 是 被 神 試 探 」 ； 因 為 神 不 能 被 惡 試 探 ， 他 也 不 試 探 人 。
14 但 各 人 被 試 探 ， 乃 是 被 自 己 的 私 慾 牽 引 誘 惑 的 。
15 私 慾 既 懷 了 胎 ， 就 生 出 罪 來 ； 罪 既 長 成 ， 就 生 出 死 來 。
16 我 親 愛 的 弟 兄 們 ， 不 要 看 錯 了 。
17 各 樣 美 善 的 恩 賜 和 各 樣 全 備 的 賞 賜 都 是 從 上 頭 來 的 ， 從 眾 光 之 父 那 裡 降 下 來 的 ； 在 他 並 沒 有 改 變 ， 也 沒 有 轉 動 的 影 兒 。
18 他 按 自 己 的 旨 意 ， 用 真 道 生 了 我 們 ， 叫 我 們 在 他 所 造 的 萬 物 中 好 像 初 熟 的 果 子
Sermon
Dr. Ricky Recodo
中文翻譯
Tithes And Offering
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Response Song
