Order, Words, & Voices
04.07.24, 40 Days, Acts 1:1-17
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Songs Hallelujah, He Reigns in Majesty Billy/Team
The Goodness of God
Participatory Reading and Prayer Beth
Songs Our God Will Go Before Us Billy/Team
God Will Make A Way
Passage Acts 1:1-17 Martha
Message 40 Days Rick
Music The Goodness of God Billy/Team
Community/Benediction Rick
Closing Peace Rick
Closing Music Our God Will Go Before Us Billy/Team
Post Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Music (Slides) Billy/Team
Hallelujah He Reigns Song #290455
Chorus
Hallelujah
He reigns in majesty
Hallelujah
He reigns in glory
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah
Hallelujah
He reigns in righteousness
Oh hallelujah
Goodness Of God Song # 7117726
Verse 1
I love You Lord
Oh Your mercy never fails me
All my days
I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
I will sing of the goodness of God
Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
Verse 2
I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest night
You are close like no other
I’ve known You as a father
I’ve known You as a friend
I have lived in the goodness of God
Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
Response (Slides) Beth
Leader: May the Lord teach us to do God’s will, for the Lord is our God.
Response: God has given us the Spirit to lead us on a level path.
Leader: God gave his servant, the one in whom God delights.
Response: God poured his spirit upon him to bring justice to the nations.
Leader: God pours water out on a thirsty land, he makes streams on the dry ground.
Response: He pours out the Spirit upon the descendants and blessings to the offspring.
Leader: The spirit of the Lord God is upon us because the Lord has anointed us
Response: The Lord has sent us to live the good news for the oppressed, and to bind up the brokenhearted.
Leader: God gives us a new heart and a new spirit.
Response: God removes our heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh.
Leader: God puts His spirit within us and leads us to follow His statutes and gives us a mind that is careful to observe His ordinances.
Response: We shall live in the land, we shall be His people, and the Lord will be our God.
Leader: God will pour out His Spirit, and we shall be God’s people
Response: And, God will be our God.
Leader: Join us in the prayer of Jesus,
Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Music (Slides) Billy/Team
Our God Will Go Before Us 7218329
Verse 1
Our God will go before us
And guide us by His presence
What confidence this promise is
We will never walk alone
Verse 2
Through unknown paths through shadows
Our hearts fear not tomorrow
For every step His faithfulness
Is the truth that lights our way
Chorus
Our God will go before us
The Lord of Hosts is with us
O praise the One who leads us on
For His grace will bring us home
(For His grace will bring us home)
Verse 3
Though evil forms against us
All heaven will defend us
The gates of hell shall not prevail
For the battle is the Lord’s
Verse 4
Now send us with Your presence
And lead us on to heaven
Where songs of sorrow strain no more
And our every breath is praise
O let our every breath be praise
Chorus
Our God will go before us
The Lord of Hosts is with us
O praise the One who leads us on
For His grace will bring us home
(For His grace will bring us home)
God Will Make A Way Song # 458620
Chorus
God will make a way
Where there seems to be no way
He works in ways we cannot see
He will make a way for me
He will be my guide
Hold me closely to His side
With love and strength
For each new day
He will make a way
He will make a way
Verse
By a roadway in the wilderness
He’ll lead me
And rivers in the desert will I see
Heaven and earth will fade
But His Word will still remain
He will do something new today
Passage (Slides) Martha
After Jesus’ suffering and resurrection he presented himself alive to his followers for forty days as he taught about the kingdom of God.
While staying with the followers, Jesus instructed them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there for the promise of the Father.
Jesus said, “John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Jesus’ followers asked him, “Lord, is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”
Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know the times or periods that are set by the Father. However, you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
As Jesus said this, his followers watched as he was lifted up, and was taken from their sight. Suddenly, two men in white robes were standing by them.
The men said, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
When the followers returned to Jerusalem they had entered the city and went to the room upstairs where they would wait as Jesus had instructed.
There, they devoted themselves to prayer along with Mary the mother of Jesus and his brothers.
Acts 1:1-14
Message Rick
Introduction – JW – Know and Do faith to Be.
Forty Days
- Appeared to disciples 3 times.
- Other sheep (John 10:11-18)
- Confronts culture in religiousity by appearing first to women and ordaining them first to go tell the men.
- Men disciples are stuck on the ‘when’ and ‘how’ of Jesus’ return and their perspective of the Kingdom of Jesus
Acts 1 is Transition period from Jesus’ voice to the the Apostles
(Dr. O. Wesley Allen, Jr.) While the apostles are still caught up in the return of Jesus and an earthly kingdom led by Jesus, Jesus is introducing them to the true thread of this age, the true power, the Spirit. Notice that this conclusion of the dialogue, to BE my witnesses, is not stated in the imperative as instructive material — for example, you must do/be my witnesses. Instead, it is a declarative sentence. Jesus declares a fact in the future tense. As you are going about life you will naturally BE.
Jesus is working in this final days in the flesh on refocusing the soon to be apostles from being ‘When’ and ‘How’ focused leaders to the Now. From “Do” to “Be’. (O. Wesley Allen, Jr., Lois Craddock Perkins Professor of Homiletics, Perkins School of Theology, Dallas, Texas)
Jesus final words, of “Go” and “Be.” Better interpreted as
‘You Will Be….everywhere you Go.”
Wait – no timeline, no details, just, ‘Wait’
Wait time would begin to shape them into an understanding of the power of man vs the power of God – Into the power of the Spirit rather than human power (a usage that corrupts and delegitimized institutions of faith as well as people of faith). (Politics). Jesus is moving disciples to “BE” leaders, compassion, mercy, love.
Men said ‘why are you looking toward heaven…”
Disciples still stood there looking through their own failed perspective of faith. Not ‘when does Jesus come back’ to, instead asking, ‘How do we live like Jesus on the path ahead?’
Rapid decline of people of faith who claim attachment to communities of faith – church. In 2016, 29% of those who have left the church, cited negative teachings about people who identify as both LGBTQ and Christian as a reason they quit their religious affiliation. In 2023, 47% said that was a reason they quit. Nearly half of LGBTQ unaffiliated respondents (48%) said they no longer identify with their childhood faith because it was bad for their mental health.
Point – True Focus on path Spirit leads us on. (2 men)
- Not on Jesus Return as we cannot know the details of that return
- Not on Jesus Return as we cannot force Jesus’ Return
- Race – Illustration of Grace and Hannah and Selfie.
- Paul speaking to Hebrews about race. Only straight ahead –
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! (Hebrews 12:1-3, MSG)
Music (Slide) Billy/Team
Goodness Of God Song # 7117726
Verse 1
I love You Lord
Oh Your mercy never fails me
All my days
I’ve been held in Your hands
From the moment that I wake up
Until I lay my head
I will sing of the goodness of God
Chorus
All my life You have been faithful
All my life You have been so so good
With every breath that I am able
I will sing of the goodness of God
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 04.14.24, ‘Asking for the Wrong Thing’, Acts 3:1-10
- Coming – Pizza and games night, Thursday, April 2
Closing Benediction (Slides each line) ?
CCLI Song # 7218329
Our God will go before us and guide us by His presence
What confidence this promise is for we will never walk alone
Through unknown paths through shadows our hearts fear not tomorrow
For every step His faithfulness is the truth that lights our way
May God now send us with His presence
For His grace will bring us home
Closing Peace (Slides) Rick
[Slide] Leader: May the peace of the Lord go with you.
[Slide] Response: And also with you.
Closing Music Billy/Team
Our God Will Go Before Us # 7218329
Verse 1
Our God will go before us
And guide us by His presence
What confidence this promise is
We will never walk alone
Verse 2
Through unknown paths through shadows
Our hearts fear not tomorrow
For every step His faithfulness
Is the truth that lights our way
Chorus
Our God will go before us
The Lord of Hosts is with us
O praise the One who leads us on
For His grace will bring us home
(For His grace will bring us home)
Verse 3
Though evil forms against us
All heaven will defend us
The gates of hell shall not prevail
For the battle is the Lord’s
Verse 4
Now send us with Your presence
And lead us on to heaven
Where songs of sorrow strain no more
And our every breath is praise
O let our every breath be praise
Chorus
Our God will go before us
The Lord of Hosts is with us
O praise the One who leads us on
For His grace will bring us home
(For His grace will bring us home)
Order, Words, & Voices 