Song Sheets & Sermon
Build Your Kingdom Here
Come set Your rule and reign
In our hearts again
Increase in us we pray
Unveil why we're made
Come set our hearts ablaze with hope
Like wildfire in our very souls
Holy Spirit come invade us now
We are Your church
We need Your pow'r in us
We seek Your kingdom first
We hunger and we thirst
Refuse to waste our lives
For You're our joy and prize
To see the captives' hearts released
The hurt the sick the poor at peace
We lay down our lives for heaven's cause
We are Your church
We pray revive this earth
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here we pray
Unleash Your kingdom's pow'r
Reaching the near and far
No force of hell can stop
Your beauty changing hearts
You made us for much more than this
Awake the kingdom seed in us
Fill us with the strength and love of Christ
We are Your church
We are the hope on earth
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here
Build Your kingdom here
Let the darkness fear
Show Your mighty hand
Heal our streets and land
Set Your church on fire
Win this nation back
Change the atmosphere
Build Your kingdom here we pray
Ancient Words
Holy words long preserved
For our walk in this world
They resound with God's own heart
O let the ancient words impart
Words of life words of hope
Give us strength help us cope
In this world where'er we roam
Ancient words will guide us home
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart
Holy words of our faith
Handed down to this age
Came to us through sacrifice
O heed the faithful words of Christ
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart
Ancient words ever true
Changing me changing you
We have come with open hearts
O let the ancient words impart
The Heart of Worship
When the music fades all is stripped away
And I simply come
Longing just to bring something that's of worth
That will bless Your heart
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You all about You Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You all about You Jesus
King of endless worth no one could express
How much You deserve
Though I'm weak and poor all I have is Yours
Ev'ry single breath
I'll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You're looking into my heart
I'm coming back to the heart of worship
And it's all about You all about You Jesus
I'm sorry Lord for the thing I've made it
When it's all about You all about You Jesus
They’ll Know We are Christians
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit
We are one in the Lord
And we pray that all unity
May one day be restored
And they’ll know we are Christians
By our love by our love
Yes they’ll know we are Christians
By our love
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
We will walk with each other
We will walk hand in hand
And together we’ll spread the news
That God is in our land
And they’ll know we are Christians
By our love by our love
Yes they’ll know we are Christians
By our love
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
We will work with each other
We will work side by side
And we’ll guard each man’s dignity
And save each man’s pride
And they’ll know we are Christians
By our love by our love
Yes they’ll know we are Christians
By our love
All praise to the Father
From whom all things come
And all praise to Christ Jesus
His only Son
And all praise to the Spirit
Who makes us one
And they’ll know we are Christians
By our love by our love
Yes they’ll know we are Christians
By our love
Make Me A Channel of Your Peace
Make me a channel of your peace:
Where there is hatred, let me bring your love;
where there is injury, your pardon Lord;,
and where there’s doubt, true faith in you.
Make me a channel of your peace:
where there’s despair in life let me bring hope;
Where there is darkness, let me bring your light,
and where there’s sadness, ever joy.
O, Master, grant that I may never seek
so much to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace:
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
in giving to all that we receive,
and in dying that we’re born to eternal life.
Blest be the Tie that Binds
Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
Before our Father's throne
we pour our ardent prayers;
our fears, our hopes, our aims are one,
our comforts and our cares.
We share our mutual woes,
our mutual burdens bear,
and often for each other flows
the sympathizing tear.
From sorrow, toil, and pain,
and sin, we shall be free;
and perfect love and friendship reign
through all eternity.
The Blessing
The Lord bless you and keep you
Make his face shine upon you
And be gracious to you
The Lord turn his face toward you
And give you peace
Amen Amen Amen
Amen Amen Amen
The Lord bless you and keep you
Make his face shine upon you
And be gracious to you
The Lord turn his face toward you
And give you peace
Amen Amen Amen
Amen Amen Amen
May his favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children and their children
May his presence go before you
And behind you and beside you
All around you and within you
He is with you He is with you
In the morning in the evening
In your coming and your going
In your weeping and rejoicing
He is for you He is for you
Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen Amen
The Lord bless you and keep you And give you peace.
Sermon titled: SUPPORTING ONE ANOTHER
Based on text: Acts 2:42-47
~ for September 2024 series with Bloomfield, Trenton, Frankford & Brighton CRC's ~by Rev George Holthof
Introduction:
What 'values' make for attractive communities in which to live?
I ask this question because, even though we enjoy living in a good country, we know there are a lot of problems plaguing our communities . When I contemplate the inability of society to solve those troubles and ills, sometimes I'm tempted to go homestead somewhere in the wilderness. Imagine trading the pressures, stresses and troubles of societal life for an adventurous life away from it all → pretty tempting!
But such an isolated lifestyle is not really a solution because human beings are 'social creatures' – we need relationships with one another – as the truism – 'No Man Is an Island' – penned by 17th century English clergyman / poet John Donne identifies. Its true that some people can survive alone – if need be, but we can't thrive in isolation. We need social interaction, support, and the blessings of community in our lives in order to flourish!
God created us that way → so He challenges His people to establish societies / communities wherein people can thrive together – with values like honouring, serving, supporting, and loving one another characterizing our communities. But creating and sustaining such communities takes some effort because even we who strive to live 'in God' and in His way live under powerful cultural influences that – in 'the West' – promotes 'me first' and what are sometimes identified as 'tribal' ideologies – leading us to think we can 'do it all alone'.
Illustration: I assume many of you have seen the movie 'Castaway' starring actor Tom Hanks – who plays a FedEx trouble-shooter named Chuck who gets marooned alone on an island in the South Pacific after his plane crashes during an intense storm. Using some of the stuff in the FedEx packages that wash ashore Chuck solves myriad survival problems – but he struggles with loneliness. One day, in a fit of anger after injuring his hand, he throws a volleyball that was in one of the packages and his bloody hand-print on that ball inspires him to draw a face on it and he names it 'Wilson'. Wilson becomes his companion – his community. But 4 years into his castaway experiences some new stuff washes ashore, so Chuck makes a raft and – with Wilson – sets sail hoping for rescue. Eventually the raft begins breaking apart in the sea and Wilson drifts away – leaving Chuck all alone again and when it seems there is no hope a passing freight ship saves him. But upon returning to his 'community' he discovers it wasn't what he had thought it was – and in a way he was still alone. So he sets out to find what he was looking for. The movie ends implying he may have found it in an unexpected – perhaps even in a spiritually miraculous – way.
'Castaway' does a pretty good job at showing what the 'no one is an island' truism declares → and prompts us to think about the 'values' a good community needs – values that help people thrive together.
Some of those 'values' – all found in God's Word and anchored in following the way of Jesus Christ – are identified in themes of this worship series → today here we consider the 'value' of supporting one another.
That takes us to Acts 2:42-47 where, in verses 44-45, we hear about how the 'First Church of Jerusalem' started out with “All the believers” being united “together” → with the understanding that everything they had was for blessing the community. We're told they even “sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need.” This is repeated in Acts 4:32-34 – giving us a 'picture' of a highly supportive community in which anyone who had a need was supported by others who could help → and that gives us insight into understanding that supporting one another is a vital 'value' of attractive church communities.
Now, the context of Acts 2 tells us that an amazing thing was happening. The church at the time of Jesus' resurrection consisted of some 120 people – people from different social strata – including the disciples, some of their family members, and even a few 'Gentiles'. Then, beginning on that day when the Holy Spirit came down in power upon Jesus' disciples, that new community began having an immense impact. Verse 41 informs us that about 3,000 people – people from all over the Middle Eastern Roman Empire – people from every walk of life – were baptized and joined the fledgling church – and the community they established was unlike anything ever seen before – because it practised values like supporting one another!
Scripture tells us that because the church operated in full public view they enjoyed “the favor of all the people.” And that resulted in “the Lord” adding “to their number daily those who were being saved.” Acts 4:4 tells us that soon were 5,000 men in the church! And if we add numbers for women and children we can assume there could have been 20,000 – 30,000 – perhaps even more 'members'! This was rapidly becoming a 'mega-church' – a church growing because they embodied values of attractive community!
But that concerned the authorities – and they began a crackdown → which caused the church to spread to other cities, towns and communities – and within 30 years it pretty much spanned at least the Mediterranean Roman Empire! Commentary about those church communities reveals that they all practised the same values – creating attractive communities → thus providing us with a powerful lesson to contemplate and use for developing our own church communities – communities challenged to reflect the 'values' of that 'First Church of Jerusalem'.
The reason why church communities must have such universally appealing values – values anchored 'in Christ' – underpinning our fellowships is because Christ's followers are blessed by God in order to be a blessing to the world around us.
That all began when God told Abraham that all nations would be blessed through Abraham's descendants. In it's narrowest, central-to-our-faith truth, of course we understand that that points to the coming of Jesus and what He accomplished for people who believe → forgiveness of sin and freedom from the curse of sin – accomplished by His sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
However, God's Word teaches that His people are called to exercise the blessings of that great blessing in many ways. We 'see' that in how the nation of Israel was intended to 'be' a community unlike any other in the world. 3 months into their 'exodus' from Egypt, while camped at the foot of Mt. Sinai, God instructed them about how to create and sustain such a community of blessing. One crucial 'value' of such a community is supporting one another → Leviticus 19:9-10, “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.”
We see this being practised in the story of Ruth – a foreigner from Moab who married into the people of Israel. After their husbands died in Moab, Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth returned to Bethlehem – and their survival required community support! And they got it. When harvest season came, Ruth went out into the fields to 'glean' – picking up grain that was dropped or unharvested. God led her into the fields of Boaz – a relative – a godly man who took seriously God's instructions about supporting others. In time, Ruth marries Boaz → and she ends up being the great-grandmother of King David – and an ancestor to Jesus – a foreigner blessed when God's people faithfully followed God's way – supporting her in a time of need.
The reason God's communities embody such values is because when they are done well they reinforce the whole gospel message – which is all about – as Jesus puts it in His teachings, “proclaiming the good news of the kingdom” of God (Luke 4:43). And we need to understand that this “good news of the kingdom” is a whole package of 'word' and 'deed' activities God's people practice in blessing community together.
You see, as God's Word compellingly points out, what makes the 'word' message of the gospel of salvation resonate with people is what they see happening within the church → and when they see attractive values being practised – that opens ears to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus – and that is because when people 'out there' see something good happening – like communities supporting one another in Christ – some of them will invariably ask why! As Acts 2:42-47 reveals, when Christian communities practise 'kingdom community' values like supporting one another → that validates the credibility of the church in our broader context of society – and that attracts people.
Now, there is a text in Galatians 6:2, that helps us understand the broad application of this 'value' → saying this, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” This tells us that supporting one another is real 'hands on' kingdom of God work that all of God's people are expected to participate in → and we must note how the text emphasizes that this is 'holy' work with broad implications of blessing – because here the text links it with fulfilling “the law of Christ.” That is an incredibly powerful 'connection' that ties 'supporting one another' with God's over-arching 'Law of Love' – which is Pastor Adam's topic in this series! For us here, today, we need to realize that 'supporting one another' flows out of 'loving one another'!
Of course, it is evident that we can only 'carry' someone else's 'burden' if we willingly shoulder part of it with someone who is struggling – and sometimes we even have to take the whole load from them for a time. A community doing that together makes it much easier – as an old adage says, 'many hands make for light work'. And we also note that the text says 'each other's burdens' – pointing out that we all have need of having others come alongside us and help us – reinforcing the truth that no one can do life well alone!
Of course, there are many ways we 'carry one anothers' burdens' – I've personally benefited from some of them and I'm sure many of you have too – some examples being:
meals prepared for someone who is recovering from injury or surgery,
or an anonymous envelope of money left in a mailbox for someone in financial need,
or simply 'being there' with someone in grief,
or raising funds for something that blesses people in the broader community – like what these 4 churches are doing together for the Pregnancy Care Centre
→ all such supportive things we do together in community are noticed by those who are watching us – and give favourable impressions about the church → and, just like in Acts 2, people are drawn in – and we get to help them with their burdens too – and in doing so we get to enjoy being a blessing in communities – just as God intends!
Now, Galatians 6:2's “carry each other's burdens” text also directs us to the grand inspiring reason propelling us to actively support one another – and that takes us to consider the one burden we cannot carry ourselves, nor can we help others carry – the greatest burden of all – sin. Only Jesus can take and bear this one – and He did – shouldering all of our sin – we don't have to carry any of it because Jesus took it to the cross of Calvary and there – with His death – paid the penalty – erasing the burden we cannot carry. But we can share the good news of this immense blessing with people – because what Jesus did lies at the heart of supporting one another.
You see, all people, whether they know it or not, struggle under the burden of sin – even believers do– and all 'burdens' – in one way or another – result from sin → so we need to remind one another, as Paul declares in Galatians 5:1, that “Christ has set us free” – forgiven and freed to be who Jesus would have us be when we respond to His invitation to, “follow” Him → and so we remember that Jesus recognizes our struggles and says – Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What a wonderful assurance of support that is! And in that assurance we support one another – knowing that in Jesus nothing can weight us down – and in fact, even helping others with heavy burdens is actually 'light' work – because Jesus is supporting us! And so, may we joyfully support one another and “fulfill the law of Christ” → bringing glory and praise to His Holy Name.