My name is Danny Finnegan. For those who don’t know me, I’m the transitional pastor at First You Can See, and it’s my privilege today to be able to bring us into a family-style worship, even if it’s virtual. The one truth that goes with that is, even though we’re doing this virtually, this is still very real to the Lord, and it still pleases Him very much.
So at this time, I want to welcome you to this time of worship we are having together. But before we begin, I just have a few things I want to mention about what is going on online. Not only do we have access to this recording of this time of worship, but there is also an order of worship that is linked into the website under bulletins. So if you would like to be able to follow along, particularly to see the sermon outline as well as the announcements, that would probably be helpful as well too.
There are just a few announcements I would like to share with you before we get started. One thing in particular, because we are in such unusual times, is that our denomination has approved what they also call virtual communion. They did not know how long we might be in this situation of social distancing and self-isolation, so they have granted special permission and authorization for us to be able to celebrate communion. We will be doing that on Sunday, April 19th.
At the end of that order of service, I have some special directions that might help you be prepared for that particular Sunday. You can go through this on your own, but I’m giving you a scripture passage to use and some other thoughts of what you could do to be prepared for communion. I will be leading this in that time as if you were here with me, and we just simply ask that you would honor that.
I also would just like to mention that we are still seeking to help. Canned food items and other items that you bring to church are still welcome. I will be taking those down on Mondays, sometimes on Tuesdays, to serve the people that are homeless as well. So if you want to drop those off at the church, there are directions for that, and also announcements as well.
As we begin to prepare for this time of worship, one of the things we do is declare our mission statement together. You will find that in the order of worship because we want to remember why we come. We’re not here just for the act of worship itself; our worship is to touch our lives so that as we come, we’re ready to go back out. So I’m going to invite you to join with me in a confession of faith about why we come and why we go back out: our mission statement. We serve to build relationships; we build relationships to share the gospel.
As we prepare for worship, I’m going to ask you to join me right now in simply being quiet before the Lord, each one of us declaring our intention to be here to worship Jesus. That is our sole reason. So let’s just pause for a moment and pray.
Lord Jesus, for those who are joining us in worship today through this church, we declare that our desire is to honor you, glorify you, and make you first in what it is that we say and do today and throughout this week. As a living act of worship, we offer this time to you now.
In Jesus’ precious name, we pray.
In our order of worship, we also have a responsive call to worship, and I’m going to go ahead and lead that now. I will do both parts so that way, it’s taken from Psalm 51, verses 10 through 17. We have a call to worship as one of the ways to prepare to give ourselves to Jesus in this time of worship.
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.”
Your response is this: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.”
Your response: “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice; were I to give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.”
Together: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
In response to that call to worship, there is a prayer of confession that I’m asking, but also then at the end of it, we will pause for a bit to allow each person the opportunity to be able to confess before the Lord personally.
Please join with me:
“Gracious God, our sins are too heavy to carry, too real, too high, and too deep to undo. Set us free from a past we cannot change. Open to us a future in which we can be changed. Grant us grace to grow more like you; help us to glorify you through our actions. We bless you for who you are, for your everlasting forgiveness through your son, Jesus Christ, we pray.”
Now let’s just pause below, and if the Lord leads you to confess anything personal, let’s do that.
“Lord Jesus, I praise you and thank you that you make it clear that you want to hear from us and that you are not ashamed of us, even when we have to confess our sins to you. Precious Jesus, Lord and Savior, I give you thanks for so great a love that, even before we knew we needed a Savior, you, Lord Jesus, prepared to come and die on our behalf.
I say to each one of you that as you confess before the Lord, know this promise: God promises that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.”
Jesus, as a hymn of praise in a song response at this time, I ask you would join with me in our hymn, “Crown Him with Many Crowns.” We will do our best to try to get these lyrics built into the order of worship, either in the bulletins or projected. So please join with me.
[Music]
“Crown Him with many crowns, the lamb upon His throne. Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own! Awakened by this song, we rise, surround the throne.”
Amen.
Excuse me. As we prepare now to hear the Word of the Lord, one thing I just want to remind you—it’s usually at this part in our worship service that we give people in our church the opportunity to continue the worship by the offering of their tithes. In this virtual situation, we cannot physically take the offering, but we still can offer our tithes to the Lord.
I will just mention, for those who are church members or regular attenders, you can mail your tithe check down to the church office, or we even have a QR code that’s inside the order of worship so that you can scan that to give online if you would like to. If you’re not a member of our church, whether or not you tithe to us is not important, but what is important is that you find the particular ministry in a way that God would call you to express the offering of your tithes as a demonstration of our trust in Him and also our faith that the mission of the kingdom still continues through this church.
At this time, I would like to share with you the Word of the Lord that He put on my heart to share. We’ve been doing a worship series during Lent on reviving and rebuilding our witness for Jesus Christ.
Now, the particular text that I’m going to be sharing with you today is from Matthew 22, verses 34 through 40, where Jesus shares about the two great commandments and two great challenges. But before I share that with you, I’m going to ask if you would mind joining me in prayer, asking the Holy Spirit to please guide us and inspire us with the truth of God’s Word as spoken by Jesus.
So let us pray.
“Lord Jesus, you promised to send your Holy Spirit to be our counselor, to be our comforter—the one who comes alongside of us. Holy Spirit, we invite you to come alongside us today to bring alive the words of God, especially as they concern your only begotten Son. Holy Spirit, come to be our teacher now.”
In Jesus’ name, we pray.
Now let’s hear the Word of the Lord that has been given to us.
“But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him, ‘Teacher