Home Worship Guide

January 24, 2021

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

“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.”
~Amanda Gorman, first-ever youth poet laureate at the presidential inauguration

“It is not because the truth is too difficult to see that we make mistakes. It may even lie on the surface; but we make mistakes because the easiest and most comfortable course for us is to seek insight where it accords with our emotions — especially selfish ones.”
~Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-2008) in “Peace and Violence” (1973)

“We should challenge the relativism that tells us there is no right or wrong, when every instinct of our mind knows it…is a mere excuse to allow us to indulge in what we believe we can get away with. A world without values quickly becomes a world without value.”
~Jonathan Sacks (1948-2020), Chief Rabbi in the United Kingdom

“Now we see how the astronomical evidence supports the biblical view of the origin of the world…. [T]he essential elements in the astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the… [universe] commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”

“For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountain of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”
~Robert Jastrow (1925-2008), a leading astronomer, physicist and cosmologist

“This universe is not a tragic expression of meaningless chaos but a marvelous display of orderly cosmos.”
~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (1929-1968), slain civil rights leader

“God cannot be Word-less, for the Word is God. Here then is a God who could never be anything but communicative, expansive, outgoing. Since God cannot be without this Word, he simply could not ever be reclusive.”
~Michael Reeves, president of Union School of Theology (Oxford)

“None of the other active world religions says anything remotely similar or comparable…. There is likewise no parallel in the theologies of John’s contemporaries – the dead myths of Greece or Rome, with their demigods and deified bureaucrats.  …John hands us a brand-new thing.”
~Reynolds Price (1933-2011), professor, literary scholar on the Gospel of John

Opening Prayer

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

Call to Worship

Psalm 40:1-3 (NASB)

LEADER: I waited patiently for the Lord;
And He inclined to me and heard my cry.

PEOPLE: He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay,
And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.


LEADER: He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God;

ALL: Many will see and fear
And will trust in the Lord.

Songs & Liturgy

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions)
10,000 REASONS (BLESS THE LORD)
(Jonas Myrin, Matt Redman)
CHORUS:
Bless the Lord, O my soul, O my soul,
Worship His holy name.
Sing like never before, O my soul.
I’ll worship Your holy name.

The sun comes up, it’s a new day dawning:
It’s time to sing Your song again.
Whatever may pass,
And whatever lies before me,
Let me be singing when the evening comes.
(CHORUS)

You’re rich in love, and You’re slow to anger.
Your name is great, and Your heart is kind.
For all Your goodness, I will keep on singing;
Ten thousand reasons for my heart to find.
(CHORUS)

And on that day when my strength is failing,
The end draws near, and my time has come;
Still my soul will sing Your praise unending:
Ten thousand years and then forevermore!
(CHORUS)

I’ll worship Your holy name.
Yes, I’ll worship Your holy name.
©2011 Thankyou Music (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) CCLI#1791178
PSALM MEDITATION: Psalm 40:4-12 (ESV)
 
LEADER: Blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust, who does not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after a lie!

PEOPLE: You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.

LEADER: In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted, but you have given me an open ear. Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.

PEOPLE: Then I said, “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me:

LEADER: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

PEOPLE: I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.


LEADER: I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

PEOPLE: As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!


LEADER: For evils have encompassed me beyond number; my iniquities have overtaken me, and I cannot see; they are more than the hairs of my head; my heart fails me.

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 injustices; specifically, that God would bring hope, reconciliation, and restoration through the good news of His Son, and that we would be agents of this reconciliation.
  • Pray for those in authority at every level in our country, that they would govern wisely and justly.

Listen to Sermon

“An Introduction to Jesus by His Friend John”
preached by Pastor Don Willeman

Song of Response

(sing as a group and/or sing along to recorded versions) 
JESUS PAID IT ALL
(Alex Nifong, Elvina M. Hall, John Thomas Grape, Kristian Stanfill, 1865)
I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

CHORUS:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone. (CHORUS)

Oh praise the One Who paid my debt,
And raised this life up from the dead.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb. (CHORUS)

Oh praise the One Who paid my debt,
And raised this life up from the dead.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
Jesus died my soul to save,
My lips shall still repeat. (CHORUS)
©2006 worshiptogether.com songs, sixstepsmusic (Admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing) CCLI#1791178

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 40:13-17 (ESV)

LEADER: Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
O Lord, make haste to help me!

PEOPLE: Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
who delight in my hurt!

LEADER: Let those be appalled because of their shame
who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

PEOPLE: But may all who seek you
rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
say continually, “Great is the Lord!”


LEADER: As for me, I am poor and needy,
but the Lord takes thought for me.

ALL: You are my help and my deliverer;
do not delay, O my God!

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!

Worshipping God through Giving

God has called us to be generous. He has entrusted this earth and all that is in it to us, but it is, ultimately, His! The Father gave what was most precious to Him, His own Son, in order to die for our sins. He has given to us abundantly beyond all that we could possibly ask or imagine! He is a benevolent and generous Giver! So, we give.

First, we want to remind you to continue your regular giving to CRC. This supports the ongoing work and ministry here in the Upper Valley and around the world through our missions support. Second, please consider giving to our Benevolence Fund, which supports local community care, both inside and outside the church. This is vitally important right now! As we see needs sprouting up around the community, we want to be positioned to extend a loving hand of support to those in need.

Giving Numbers
Budgeted Giving YTD: $617,100
Actual Giving to Date: $530,196
Difference: (-$86,904)
Missions Giving YTD: $112,266
updated as of 11/30