SOLI DEO GLORIA CHURCH May 3, 2020 - Home Study Mark 5:21-43 SCRIPTURE Psalm 9 (Read Aloud) I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence. For you have maintained my just cause; you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment. You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish; you have blotted out their name forever and ever. The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins; their cities you rooted out; the very memory of them has perished. But the Lord sits enthroned forever; he has established his throne for justice, and he judges the world with righteousness; he judges the peoples with uprightness. The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you. Sing praises to the Lord, who sits enthroned in Zion! Tell among the peoples his deeds! For he who avenges blood is mindful of them; he does not forget the cry of the aicted. Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my aiction from those who hate me, O you who lift me up from the gates of death, that I may recount all your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion I may rejoice in your salvation. The nations have sunk in the pit that they made; in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught. The Lord has made himself known; he has executed judgment; the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion.] Selah The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever. Arise, O Lord! Let not man prevail; let the nations be judged before you! Put them in fear, O Lord! Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah 2 Peter 1:1-11 (Read Aloud) Simeon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ: May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. 3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every eort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly aection, and brotherly aection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Leader: Our help is in the Name of the Lord! Family: Who made heaven and earth (Psalm 124:8) CONFESSION Our merciful Father, we thank you that you never allow us comfort when we are not walking with you. When we refuse to confess our sins you give us an inward ache, as though our bones are wasting away, and we groan with an inaudible roar of guilt. You keep your hand heavy upon us, always pressing and depressing us. And out energy evaporates as dried up by the heat of a summer night. O Lord, the misery of unconfessed sin is a grace; it is a sign of being your child, and that we are loved. Thank you for the gift of guilt. Merciful Father, thank you for forgiveness - because when we confess our sins there is real forgiveness for our real guilt, and the ache and the heaviness and the apathy disappear. And our hearts sing: “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered… You are a hiding place for me… you surround me with shouts of deliverance (Psalm 32:1, 7). Loving Father, thank you for the blessed discomfort that you bring to us when we are away from you. Hear us as we now confess our sins in these moments of silence. CONFESSION 1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord! 2 O Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy! 3 If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? 4 But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. SING Doxology (See Video) PRAYER Lord Jesus Christ, incarnate Son of God, the firstborn of all creation, you are the Creator of everything in the universe. There is nothing about which you look upon and do not say “Mine.” The Scriptures speak of you when they say, “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities - all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” You created every texture, every aroma, the unseen beauties under the sea, the gliding rainbow and intricacies of DNA, the stripes on a bumblebee, the trackless, fleeing galaxies, every speck of stellar dust. They’re yours! You were existing before these things were, and you hold all things together by the word of your power (Hebrews 1:3). And, as the firstborn of all creation, you are the heir of everything in the universe and, indeed, it's very goal as you, Christ, are “the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13) Sovereign Lord, you are the Creator, the Sustainer, the Goal who became our Redeemer when you took on Human flesh, lived among us and then died on the cross for our sins. Lord Jesus, help us grasp the immensity of who you are and what you have done for us, and then believe it with all of our hearts - because the most important thing about us is what we believe about you. You are the Cre- ator, Sustainer, Goals, Redeemer, and Lover of our souls. We believe; help our unbelief! May those who are doubting their significance in this uncaring world overcome by a pandemic grasp the immensity of your person and the vast love with which they are loved, and likewise those reeling from rejection, overcome with loneliness, struggling to provide, dealing with errant children, or aging and facing the loss of a loved one. May the astonishing wonder of your death on the cross for us, eternal Son and Creator and Sustainer, and the unending tide of your love cause us to rest in you. We pray this in the name that is above every name. Amen. SERMON Mark 5:21-43 (See Video) Pastor David Deutsch CREED Leader: Christian what do you believe? Family: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; He descended into hades; on the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there He will 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 life everlasting. Amen. SING Gloria Patri (See Video) BENEDICTION Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21.