the vbs ministry moment congregational prayer time


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THE VBS MINISTRY MOMENT

The ultimate purpose of missions is worship — all peoples glorifying God — and this is our reason for declaring the greatness of God to the nations.

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYER TIME

ABC SUBMARINE

VBS - IN BETWEEN WEEKS

RESPONSE HYMN

LIFT HIGH THE CROSS [CRUCIFER]

SUBMURGED... GOING DEEP WITH JESUS

THE GREAT COMMISSION AS A MEANS OF GRACE - DAVID MATHIS We can only go so deep with Jesus until we start yearning to reach out. When our life in him is healthy and vibrant, we not only ache to keep sinking our roots down deep in him, but also to stretch our branches out and extend his goodness to others.

“All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before You” (Psalm 22:27)

But not only does going deep with Jesus soon lead us to reach out to others, but also reaching out sends us deeper with him. In other words, getting on board with Jesus’ mission to disciple the nations may be the very thing he uses to push through your spiritual slump and jumpstart your stalled sanctification. One veteran pastor writes,

Through this psalm, God revealed to David — and to us — His great redeeming purpose for fallen humanity: that “all the families of the nations” will remember Him, return to Him and worship Him.

Often I meet Christians who are in spiritual malaise, holding on to their faith but not advancing it much. Bible study has become a chore; prayer is a dry routine. The miracle of their own conversion, once recounted with great passion, is now a distant, fading memory. And going to church is — well, it’s something they just do. Mechanically and halfheartedly, these people trudge along through the drudgery of quarantined Christianity. But when these lethargic believers break out of spiritual isolation and meet some spiritual seekers, something incredible starts to happen. As they experience the high-stakes conversations that tend to happen with unchurched people, they begin to notice a sort of inner renewal taking place. Areas long ignored suddenly come alive with fresh significance. . . . Isn’t it incredible how elevating our efforts to reach others can be a catalyst for personal growth? (Becoming a Contagious Christian, 30, 32)

It is a restatement of God’s promise to Abraham that “all the peoples on earth will be blessed” through his descendants (Gen. 12:3).

Living on mission is not only an effect of God’s grace coming to us through the channels of his word, prayer, and fellowship, but it also becomes a means of his grace to us in the Christian life.

God reminds David and forgetful Israel that the promise still stands — and will stand for ages to come. This, then, is our reason for declaring the greatness of God to the nations. Not only because He has blessed us, though He surely has. Not only because He wants to bless others through us, though He surely does. Not only because He commands it, though His Great Commission stands unchanged as the church’s main task. Not only because thousands of ethnic people groups and billions of lost souls still dwell in darkness, though they do. -- From the International Mission Board Web Site www.imb.org

OFFERTORY PRAYER OFFERTORY

AMAZING GRACE • BRASS ENSEMBLE

CONGREGATIONAL GREETINGS MORNING SERMON

CONRAD “BUSTER” BROWN, SENIOR PASTOR

PASTORAL PRAYER AND BENEDICTION POSTLUDE 361 Egypt Road Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 843.856.3222 Equipping people to pursue Jesus Christ passionately as they impact the culture. eastcooperbaptist.com

WORSHIPGUIDE

LIFT HIGH THE CROSS... WORSHIP AND MISSIONS

WC

COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVER BLESSING

The Church in Corporate Worship Please use the following prayer to prepare your hearts for worship: O JESUS, WHOSE NAME IS ABOVE ALL NAMES, we stand before you to worship you this morning, to join with the great company of heaven to sing your praises in humble but joyful adoration of all that you are.

JUNE 12, 2016

This morning we come to praise the greatness of the Lord’s name and seek His face for the grace to proclaim that glorious name to our city and our world.

REFLECTION

THOUGHTS FOR WORSHIP PREPARATION

Though we have all gone our own ways, your outstretched arm has brought us back to the One for whom our souls yearn.

There are millions of Christians who have absorbed a popular ethic that comes more from Immanuel Kant than from the Bible, namely, that it is morally deficient to see our happiness - to pursue joy, to crave satisfaction, and devote ourselves to seeking it. This is absolutely deadly for authentic worship. To the degree that this ethic flourishes, to that degree worship dies.



For the essence of worship is satisfaction in God. To be indifferent to, or even fearful of, the pursuit of what is essential to worship is to resist worship.

We are needy.

Many churches foster this very thing by saying things like: “The problem is that our people don’t come on Sunday morning to give; they only come to get. If they came to give, we would have life in our services.” That is not an accurate diagnosis. People ought to come to get. They ought to come starved for God. They ought to come saying, “As a deer pants for the flowing springs, so my soul pants for thee O God” (Psalm 42:1).

Feed us.

God is mightily honored when a people know that they will die of hunger and thirst unless they have God...

May you this and every day receive the glory due your majestic name. May our hearts adore you and our tongues shower you with praise for the triumph of your grace that brings to us unbounded health and peace and life everlasting.

We are hungry.

Amen.

COVER IMAGE: Part of the “OUR CITY” collection,

depicting scenes from the greater Charleston area. A reminder to us of God’s heart for our city, and our responsibility to proclaim the Good News to all.

Nothing makes God more supreme and more central than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing - not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends - nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their aching hearts besides God.



This conviction breeds a people who go hard after God on Sunday morning. They are not confused about why they are there. They do not see songs and prayers and sermons as mere traditions or mere duties. They see them as means of getting to God or God getting to them for more of his fullness...



Nothing keeps God at the center of worship like the Biblical conviction that the essence of worship is deep, heartfelt satisfaction in Him, and the conviction that the pursuit of that satisfaction is why we are together.



-- John Piper on Corporate Worship

Written by Robert Robinson, [Born: September 27, 1735, Swaffham, Norfolk, England. Died: June 8, 1790, Showell Green, Warwickshire.

THE MORNING WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS VIDEO

THE CALL TO PRAISE HYMN

COME, THOU FOUNT OF EVERY BLESSING [NETTLETON]

Robinson’s widowed mother sent him at age 14 to London, to learn the trade of barber and hair dresser. However, his master found he enjoyed reading more than work.



He wrote a number of hymns, as well as books on the subject of theology. His later life was evidently not an easy one, judging from a well known story about this hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”

Often our faith is strong. Often weak. But it is not God or the Gospel that has changed -- It is the solid rock upon which we can anchor our “prone to wander” soul...

Let the heavens praise your wonders, O LORD, your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones! For who in the skies can be compared to the LORD? Who among the heavenly beings is like the LORD, a God greatly to be feared in the council of the holy ones, and awesome above all who are around him?

HYMN OF PRAISE

ALL HAIL THE POWER OF JESUS’ NAME [ CORONATION]

O LORD God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O LORD, with your faithfulness all around you?

Converted to Christ at age 17, Robinson became a Methodist minister. He later moved to the Baptist church and pastored in Cambridge, England.

One day, he encountered a woman who was studying a hymnal, and she asked how he liked the hymn she was humming. In tears, he replied, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.”

PSALM 89: 5-18 FOR REFLECTION

You rule the raging of the sea; when its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass; you scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

The heavens are yours; the earth also is yours; the world and all that is in it, you have founded them. The north and the south, you have created them; Tabor and Hermon joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm; strong is your hand, high your right hand.

THE AFFIRMATION OF FAITH PHILIPPIANS 2:6-11

LEADER: Whom do we worship as our Lord and King?



PEOPLE: We worship Jesus as our Lord and King, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highl exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Blessed are the people who know the festal shout, who walk, O LORD, in the light of your face, who exult in your name all the day and in your righteousness are exalted. For you are the glory of their strength; by your favor our horn is exalted. For our shield belongs to the LORD, our king to the Holy One of Israel. (Psalm 89:5-18 ESV)

THE SONG OF ADORATION OUR GREAT GOD

Eternal God, Unchanging, Mysterious and unknown. Your boundless love unfailing, In grace and mercy shown. Bright seraphim in endless flight around your glorious throne. They raise their voices day and night in praise to you alone. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God! Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God! Lord, We are weak and frail, Helpless in the storm. Surround us with your angels, Hold us in your arms. Our cold and ruthless enemy, his pleasure is our harm. Rise up, O Lord, And he will flee before our Sovereign God. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God! Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God! Let every creature in the sea and every flying bird; Let every mountain, Every field and valley of the earth; Let all the moons and all the stars in all the universe Sing praises to the Living God, Who rules them by His word. Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God! Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God!