CALL TO WORSHIP

Tune – Immortal, Invisible – p. 34)

(Words written by Pastor Gary Shepard)

We gather this morning to worship and praise,

The God of all glory, the Ancient of Days.

None other is worthy but Jesus alone

God’s Lamb once provided, His blood has atoned.

From sin and from darkness, He brings out His own,

Through preaching the Gospel to them He makes known,

The riches of glory and grace by His cross:

Eternal possessions which cannot be lost.

Praise be to the Father who chose us in grace.

Praise be to the Son who has died in our place.

Praise be to the Spirit who gave us new birth.

Praise be to the One God of heaven and earth.

With all of our hearts does the Lord bid us sing,

Come humbly before Him, thanksgiving to bring.

All others are idols, He lives, God alone

By grace He has saved us and made us His own.

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TODAY’S SERVICES – Messages by Pastor Bill Parker

BIBLE CLASS – 10:00 a.m. –

One Greater Than Solomon – Song of Solomon 3:6-11

MORNING WORSHIP – 11:00 a.m –

OPENING – Psalm 122

CALL TO WORSHIP (above)

HYMN – Take the Name of Jesus With You – p. 63

READING – John 17

MESSAGE – The Lord Prays for His People – John 17:1-5

CLOSING HYMN – Like a River Glorious – p. 287

Birthdays: Mark Pannell – June 24^th

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).

An infant can recognize the sound of his mother's voice and distinguish it from others. A bee laden with pollen returns to a collection of many hives to the exact one from which it proceeded, recognizing the distinctive scent of his queen. A dog knows his master's call, and though a hundred others may hail him, he will come only to one. A sheep knows and will follow the voice of the shepherd. A believer, granted faith by God, will know the truth of His Gospel, and distinguish it from what is not the Gospel. —John Pederson

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God the Father contrived the scheme and method of justification; it would have been a puzzling question to angels and men, had not He resolved it: “How should man,” sinful man, “be just with God?”

But God, in His infinite wisdom, “found a ransom,” a Ransomer, a Redeemer of His people, to bring in everlasting righteousness for them, and thereby acquit and discharge them, and “deliver them from going down to the pit” of ruin and destruction. “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” God was with Him, forming the scheme of their peace and reconciliation, of their redemption, justification, and salvation. “Not imputing their trespasses,” but the righteousness of His Son to them (Job 9:2; 33:24; 2 Corinthians 5:19). —Copied

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I AM AS NEAR AS HE

(Horatius Bonar -1808-1889)

A mind at perfect peace with God, O what a word is this!

A sinner reconciled through blood! This, this indeed is peace.

By nature and by practice far, How very far from God!

Yet now by grace brought nigh to Him, Through faith in Jesus’ Blood.

So nigh, so very nigh to God, I cannot nearer be!

For in the person of His Son, I am as near as He.

So dear, so very dear to God, More dear I cannot be!

The love wherewith He loves the Son, Such is His love to me!

"Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God, through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Spirit, for such things as God has promised." —John Bunyan

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TRUE PRAYER AND GOD’S WILL

True Godly prayer does not change God’s mind or change His sovereign will. God is immutable and has no reason to change, and His sovereign, immutable will guarantees the salvation of His people based on the merits of Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross – “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob [sinners saved by grace] are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6). True Godly prayer seeks God’s will and bows to His will in humility and submission, knowing that God’s will is always best for us. True Godly prayer rejoices in the will of God and changes us, causing us to know and to follow His will. Whatever God has for us according to His will always has three goals it will accomplish:

(1) It will glorify God as the sovereign of the universe Who is both just and the justifier of His people in their salvation and preservation unto glory, all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ.

(2) It will exalt the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings, and Who is the Surety, Substitute, and Redeemer of His people whom God gave Him before the foundation of the world. It will acknowledge Him as the Lord our Righteousness, the one and only Mediator between God and His people.

(3) No matter how God’s will appears to us as He unfolds and reveals it in our lives, it will ALWAYS and ULTIMATELY work to the praise of the glory of His grace in Christ and be for our eternal and spiritual good (Rom. 8:28).