Guide for Home Worship

October 18, 2020

Welcome

Thank you so much for joining us! The following page will take you through the order of worship for this Sunday.

If you are new, welcome! We also want to invite you to learn more about us. You can do so by selecting the button below.
A few tips for parents:
  • Plan for your time – read through the guide and prepare the room where you are gathering
  • Make your time joyful – have fun!!!
  • Remember, it’s primarily about a relationship, not a task to scratch off
  • Have your kids participate in age and maturity appropriate ways – reading, singing, etc.

Time of Reflection

“God only knows, God makes his plan,
The information’s unavailable to the mortal man.
We work our jobs collect our pay,
Believe were gliding down the highway,
When in fact were slip sliding away.”
~Paul Simon, “Slip Sliding Away”

Scarecrow: I haven’t got a brain… only straw.
Dorothy: How can you talk if you haven’t got a brain?
Scarecrow: I don’t know… But some people without brains do an awful lot of talking… don’t they?
Dorothy: Yes, I guess you’re right.
~Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

“Even in peacetime I think those are very wrong who say that schoolboys should be encouraged to read the newspapers. Nearly all that a boy reads there in his teens will be known before he is twenty to have been false in emphasis and interpretation, if not in fact as well, and most of it will have lost all importance. Most of what he remembers he will therefore have to unlearn; and he will probably have acquired an incurable taste for vulgarity and sensationalism and the fatal habit of fluttering from paragraph to paragraph to learn how an actress has been divorced in California, a train derailed in France, and quadruplets born in New Zealand.”
~C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

“Evil will always triumph, because good is dumb.”
~Dark Helmet, Spaceballs

“Folly, thou conquerest, and I must yield!
Against stupidity the very gods
Themselves contend in vain.”
~Friedrich Schiller, The Maid of Orleans

“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”
~Matthew 11:16-19

Opening Prayer

(select someone from your group to open your service in prayer)

Call to Worship

Psalm 104 (ESV)

LEADER: Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty,

PEOPLE: Covering yourself with light as with a garment,
stretching out the heavens like a tent.


LEADER: He lays the beams of His chambers on the waters;
He makes the clouds His chariot;
He rides on the wings of the wind;

PEOPLE: He makes His messengers winds,
His ministers a flaming fire.


LEADER: He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.

PEOPLE: You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.


LEADER: At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.

PEOPLE: The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.


LEADER: You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.

PEOPLE: You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
they flow between the hills;


LEADER: They give drink to every beast of the field;
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.

PEOPLE: Beside them the birds of the heavens dwell;
they sing among the branches.


LEADER: From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

Songs & Liturgy

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions)
BE THOU MY VISION
(Traditional Irish hymn, trans. Mary E. Byrne, versified by Eleanor H. Hull)
Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven my treasure Thou art.

High King of heaven, my victory won,
May I reach heaven’s joys, O bright heav’ns Sun
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
Psalm Meditation
Psalm 104 (ESV)

LEADER: You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth

PEOPLE: And wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man’s heart.

LEADER: The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.

PEOPLE: In them the birds build their nests; the stork has her home in the fir trees.

LEADER: The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the rock badgers.

PEOPLE: He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.

LEADER: You make darkness, and it is night, when all the beasts of the forest creep about.

PEOPLE: The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.

LEADER: When the sun rises, they steal away and lie down in their dens.

PEOPLE: Man goes out to his work and to his labor until the evening.

LEADER: O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

PEOPLE: Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.

LEADER: There go the ships, and Leviathan, which you formed to play in it.

PEOPLE: These all look to you, to give them their food in due season.

LEADER: When you give it to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.

PEOPLE: When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.

LEADER: When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

Sharing

(as a lead into the Prayer Time, as a group share how you are feeling and what you are learning; below are suggested questions)

Prayer Time

(You may have an open time of prayer or select someone to pray)

  • Pray for our church’s short and long-term meeting place needs, that God would give us favor in the eyes of those in authority and that He would give us provision that would go far beyond all that we could ask or imagine.
  • Pray for our world – that the good news of Jesus Christ would flourish and that many would come to know God genuinely and personally.
  • Pray for those experiencing racial injustices; specifically, that God would bring hope, reconciliation, and restoration through the good news of His Son.
  • Pray for those in authority at every level in our country, that they would govern wisely and justly.

Listen to Sermon

“Knowing God in His Wisdom”
preached by Pastor Ryan Bouton, Campus Pastor at The Quechee Church

Confession of Faith

The Apostles’ Creed (circa 5th Century)

LEADER: Christian, what do you believe?

CONGREGATION: I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell*.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit;
the holy catholic** church; the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting.

Amen.

*i.e. suffered under the judgment of God for His people
**i.e. “universal”

Sharing Time

(have everyone share one thing that struck them from the sermon)

Closing Meditation

Psalm 104 (ESV)

PEOPLE: May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works,


LEADER: who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke!

PEOPLE: I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.

LEADER: May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

ALL: Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more! Bless the Lord, O my soul! Praise the Lord!

Song

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions)
I STAND IN AWE
(Mark Altrogge)
You are beautiful beyond description,
Too marvelous for words;
Too wonderful for comprehension,
Like nothing ever seen or heard.
Who can grasp Your infinite wisdom?
Who can fathom the depth of Your Love?
You are beautiful beyond description,
Majesty enthroned above.

REFRAIN:
And I stand, I stand in awe of You,
I stand, I stand in awe of You;
Holy God, to whom all praise is due,
I stand in awe of You.

You are beautiful beyond description
Yet God crushed You for my sin
In agony and deep affliction
Cut off that I might enter in
Who can grasp such tender compassion
Who can fathom this mercy so free
You are beautiful beyond description
Lamb of God who died for me.
(REFRAIN)
©1987 Sovereign Grace Praise (c/o Integrity Music, Inc.) CCLI#1791178

Benediction

(The leader or individual should read this aloud relishing in the confident assertion that Christ has conquered.)

Luke 12:29-32

LEADER: Do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried. For all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

PEOPLE: Amen!