ORDER OF SERVICE
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
May 22nd 2011
Welcome & Announcements
Greetings to you in Christ, and may your walk in faith on this day and from it be blessed with the joy of heaven as we serve in God’s grace.
Session Meeting – a joint session meeting will take place on May 30th at St. James Church in Beersville at 7pm; to be discussed VBS, Summer memorials, vacation, study leave,
Gospel hymn Sing – May 29th, 7pm hosted by Grangeville Baptist Church. Everyone is invited and please bring a friend. A luncheon will follow.
Choir Practice – May 24th, 7pm at St. James.
Teen Challenge Atlantic – (Memramcook Chapter) is an addiction treatment program using faith as a catalyst for change. They will be giving a presentation at Grangeville Baptist Wednesday May 25th 7pm Goodwill donation for the teen Challenge program will be taken, with a light luncheon afterwards.
Tuesday Morning Bible Study –Tuesdays at 10am at the Manse [3279 Route 465]. All are welcome.
Tuesday Bible School 6:30-7:30pm in Clairville at 1220 Rte 465 [Marie Fillmore’s]. All children are welcome.
Wednesday Evening Bible Study –Starting Wednesday, May 4th, 7pm at the home of Jessie Kelly [1972 Route 495]. We will be studying the Psalms with a theme of Prayer and Praise.
Variety Shows – EWG Middle School featuring their very own “Fire Drummers” on Tuesday, May 31st starting at 7pm in the school’s cafetorium. A donation at the door would be appreciated, everyone is welcome.
Bonar Law will be hosting the 2nd annual “Bengals’ Night Out” Variety Show on May 25th, 26th and 27th at 7:00pm. The Cost is $7.00 for adults, $5.00 for those 12 and under.
The BRPC EMAILING LIST –email thebrpc@gmail.com to be added
Call to Worship I love you Lord
Prayer of Approach & Confession & The Lord’s Prayer (NBoP 831; BoP 605)
Opening Praise: BoP 328 Stand up and bless the Lord
Responsive Reading – Psalm 31 [BoP 628]
Children’s story –
Children’s Hymn: BoP 401 Tell me the old, old story
Scripture Readings:
NT – Acts 7:55-60
55But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
57At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
Epistle – 1 Peter 2:2-10
2Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation, 3now that you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—5you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For in Scripture it says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”
7Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,
“The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone, “
8and,
“A stone that causes men to stumble
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the message—which is also what they were destined for.
9But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Hymn of Illumination: BoP 382 Christ for the world we sing
Scripture Readings:
Gospel – John 14:1-14
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. 2In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4You know the way to the place where I am going.”
5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. 12I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Sermon: The Perfect Provider
Anything! I used to ponder at the possibilities of that ‘anything’ clause in Jesus statement to his disciples. Jesus says to his disciples. When I think of all the things I have ever wanted, here is an open invitation to ask God for anything. Do I mean anything? Yes, I mean anything.
It is a real test of our own faith to simply ask God for the things we want in life. God, who created us, who gives us everything we already have, and has put in place all the things we are meant to receive has not set aside our wants, our dreams, or our hopes. The real question is, are we ready to accept that God will provide? Are you willing to have your faith proven by God’s love for you?
Every parent’s pleasure is to look upon the smiling face of children who are filled with the joy and comfort that comes from being well provided for. Oh, that has never meant that every want was catered to, though a treat from time to time is a blessing every parent wishes to give, but needs of cleanliness and clothing, shelter, warmth and food, and the chance to learn and grow; if these were not wanting than any parent would know the satisfaction of being a good provider.
And I believe that about the time our society lost that understanding of what good provision really is, was the same time we lost sight – as a society – of who God really is.
How do you see God as your provider?
How do you recognize God’s provision for you and your life each and every day?
Whether we like it or not, God provides for the good and evil in the world. Was God not the same ultimate source for the food Ben Laden ate, as God was the source for your food? Are your neighbours in any less of a shelter even if they may not be attending church services as frequently as you do?
Who do you think has the greater chance of winning the lottery? The one who believes in Jesus? Or the one who does not?
There was a time where your attending church, attending a certain church even, might change your positioning life and through it you might land a better paying job. By going to certain churches in certain communities you might find yourself connected with the right people for personal advancement. And it was once viewed that if you were the kind of person who attended church on a regular basis, you were also the kind of person who be trusted and entrusted with responsibility, position, power, and through all these things you could advance yourself as someone who could provide MORE for yourself and your family and even your friends.
I hope you see where this all falls apart. It is the reason that the church having so much influence in society has fallen apart. It is simply because a church that function that way, with those motivations in mind is not a church made up believers in God, it is made up with people who feel entitled to God’s provision. See it was not society that fell, and the church followed; it was the church that fell, and society has crumbled after us.
We were once in the business of helping people see what God was doing in their lives. Are we capable now of even seeing for ourselves what God is doing in our lives, let alone showing others the signs of God’s grace. Do we have the faith to celebrate salvation as it sustains our belief, so that we can share that faith with others?
So I have to ask you, are you the kind of disciple who looks at the whole picture of God’s provision in your life and say to yourself – or say in the way you conduct your life – ‘I don’t have enough evidence to make a statement about my faith’. In looking at the opportunities you have been given, the conditions in which you live, the security of your life, the resources to do whatever you might like, are these enough to convince you.
While I am sure you are able to say yes, I can tell you that there are people that no matter how many possessions and how much influence they have, they still will say that their confidence is not in what God can provide, but in what they believe they can provide for themselves. And you could give these same people the whole world for themselves and they still would not believe.
Honestly, that is not a bad thing. I would never trust in a faith that is built upon how much I feel God has given me. I believe God is the source of all the grace I feel in my life, the center of what makes me most happy, the origin of every ounce of love that envelops me, but If I sat down and counted all the blessings to see what God has done, I would not trust in the blessings as the source of my faith I would look beyond all these possessions to God.
The disciples ask to see God the Father. Even Jesus was not enough for them. The Son of God was not enough for the disciples. I tell you now that if indeed God appeared before the world thee would be those who would say that it was not enough to make them believe.
I don’t get into this pulpit week after week to try and convince you that God is God, I come up here to give you an opportunity to accept what you already know. You have been given a lifetime of proof, and every breath of life that you continue to take is more proof upon what you already have that God loves you and provides for you.
But God does know when enough is not enough. God knew what more we needed to be convinced. We need more than the breath of life to convince us, we need more than the strength of our bodies, and the material things that we use to sustain ourselves. God looks past the needs of the flesh and the mind into our very souls, and in looking into the souls of all human kind for all time God saw our need for Jesus, and God saw to that provision; even at the horrible cost it was to him.
Because when God sent his Son, His begotten being born into human flesh, he did not simple send him to teach and bear witness to God, but he sent Christ Jesus into our midst so that we would take him and use him up completely. God sent Jesus into the world to die so that our sin could be taken off of our lives, and if you still doubt God in the light of your salvation from sin, there is no other way to convince you.
Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” Whether in this life or the life everlasting God’s provision is perfect, and not to the end of serving selfish wants, but to the goal of meeting our deepest needs. God knows them, better than perhaps we know and understand them ourselves. And God will not leave us, not forsake us. Trust in God.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Amen
Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession
God’s Tithes and our gifts
Doxology (NBoP 830; BoP 603)
Offertory Prayer
Commissioning Hymn: BoP 465 God of grace and God of glory
Benediction