As we strive to encourage families and small groups to worship, we pray and hope this audio recording will encourage you on Sunday mornings in your homes.
As you use this order of worship, listen along with our pre-recorded order of worship and sermon.
March Scripture Memory
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. — 1 Peter 3:18
Reflection Quote
Psalm 46:1–5: 1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.
The Ultimate Stronghold. Until recently no one imagined the possibility of the world itself being destroyed, but today our films are filled with ways it could happen. But if you have this God as your God, you can face even such cataclysms without any fear. It doesn’t say here that God will help you if you get into a strong refuge. It says he is that refuge. God is a stronghold or city that cannot be bombed or destroyed. Though earthquakes and tidal waves dissolve the solid world and civilizations melt, his rule is unshaken. If God is with you, even the worst thing that happens to you - death - only makes you infinitely happier and greater.
Prayer. Lord, I feel so vulnerable - to disease and injury, to financial loss, to political betrayal, to professional failure. But in this psalm you say that even earthquakes and mountains melting can’t take away my inheritance of infinite love, resurrection, new heavens, and new earth. As I praise you for this, my anxiety ebbs. Thank you. Amen.
Timothy Keller, The Songs of Jesus
Welcome, Prayer, and Call to Worship
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.. — Colossians 1:15-20
How Firm a Foundation #94
Verse 1. How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word! What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?
Verse 2. Fear not, I am with you, O be not dismayed; for I am your God, and will still give you aid; I’ll strengthen you, help you and cause you to stand, upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.
Verse 3. When through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow; for I will be with you, your troubles to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.
Verse 4. When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, my grace, all-sufficient, shall be your supply; the flame shall not hurt you; I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine.
Verse 5. E’en down to old age all my people shall prove my sovereign, eternal, unchangeable love; and when hoary hairs shall their temples adorn, like lambs they shall still in my bosom be borne.
Verse 6. The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes; that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake.
Affirmation of Faith
Westminster Confession of Faith (Chapter 33)
God hath appointed a day, wherein He will judge the world in righteousness, by Jesus Christ, to whom all power and judgment is given of the Father. In which day, not only the apostate angels shall be judged, but likewise all persons that have lived upon earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ, to give an account of their thoughts, words, and deeds; and to receive according to what they have done in the body, whether good or evil.
Prayer of Confession
God, we humbly come to you, our only perfect and righteous judge. Far too often, we do not consider the reality of that day that you will come to judge all. We try to set it aside or we live in fear of it, like one who is still under the bondage of sin.
Father, we confess that often our self-righteous hearts lead us to downplay your judgment on sin. Our attitudes can often display a disgust at your judgment, when in reality it is the fair and right thing against all sin.
Father, forgive us for not trusting that Jesus is our only hope at your judgment. We take the work of Jesus on the cross lightly and do not live in gratitude for the judgment that was placed on him. O Lord, have mercy on us and cleanse us by your blood Lord Jesus.
In Jesus’ name, amen.
Assurance of Pardon
Romans 5:9-11 - Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
Pastoral Prayer
IPC Family
Nathan & Amy Wolek (Bethany, Penelope)
Sadie Buck
Church in DeLand
First Presbyterian Church
Rev. Michael Bodger
Nations
Good Samaritan Clinic
This is My Father’s World #111
Verse 1. This is my Father’s world, And to my list’ning ears, All nature sings, and round me rings The music of the spheres. This is my Father’s world: I rest me in the thought, of rocks and trees, of skies and seas— His hand the wonders wrought.
Verse 2. This is my Father’s world: The birds their carols raise, The morning light, the lily white, Declare their Maker’s praise. This is my Father’s world: He shines in all that’s fair; In the rustling grass I hear Him pass, He speaks to me everywhere.
Verse 3. This is my Father’s world: Oh, let me ne’er forget, That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet. This is my Father’s world, The battle is not done: Jesus who died shall be satisfied, And earth and Heav’n be one.
Sermon Text
Genesis 1:31; 2:15-18; 3:1, 8, 23; 4:9-11; 5:1-5; 6:5-8; 7:5-10; 8:1-3; 9:8-11; 10:31-32; 11:3-4, 9
Genesis 1:31: And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 2:15–18: The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” 18 Then the LordGod said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”
Genesis 3:1, 8, 23: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” … 8And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. … 23 therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.
Genesis 4:9–11: Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” 10 And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. 11 And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Genesis 5:1–5: This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. 3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Genesis 6:5–8: The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 7:5–10: And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Genesis 8:1–3: But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated,
Genesis 9:8–11: Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Genesis 10:31–32: These are the sons of Shem, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations. 32These are the clans of the sons of Noah, according to their genealogies, in their nations, and from these the nations spread abroad on the earth after the flood.
Genesis 11:3–4: And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” … 9Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
Prayer
Sermon Outline
“God is Good, God is Gracious, God is Glorious”
I. Introduction
II. Lessons & Reflections
III. Bookends
Benediction
Great is Thy Faithfulness #32
Verse 1. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father; there is no shadow of turning with thee; thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; as thou hast been thou forever wilt be.
Refrain: Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see: all I have needed thy hand hath provided - Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Verse 2. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. [Refrain]
Verse 3. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide, strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! [Refrain]