Order, Words, & Voices
04.21.24, Chosen Because, Acts 17:1-9 & 1 Thess. 1:1-10
Order
Pre Worship Music – Spotify – Open and Close
Songs Shout to the Lord Billy/Team
Thank You Lord
Participatory Reading and Prayer Beth
Songs Revelation Song Billy/Team
Jesus Lover of My Soul
Passage Acts 17:1-9 Martha
Message Chosen…Because Rick
Music Jesus Lover of My Soul 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
Shout To The Lord Song # 1406918
Verse
My Jesus my Saviour
Lord there is none like You
All of my days I want to praise
The wonders of Your mighty love
My comfort my shelter
Tower of refuge and strength
Let every breath all that I am
Never cease to worship You
Chorus
Shout to the Lord
All the earth let us sing
Power and majesty
Praise to the King
Mountains bow down
And the seas will roar
At the sound of Your name
I sing for joy
At the work of Your hands
Forever I’ll love You
Forever I’ll stand
Nothing compares to the promise
I have in You
Thank You Lord CCLI Song # 577439
Verse
For all that You’ve done
I will thank You
For all that You’re going to do
For all that You’ve promised
And all that You are
Is all that has carried me through
Jesus I thank You
Pre-Chorus
And I thank You thank You Lord
(And I thank You thank You Lord)
Thank You thank You Lord
(Thank You thank You)
Chorus
Thank You for loving and setting me free
Thank You for giving Your life just for me
How I thank You Jesus I thank You
Gratefully thank You thank You
Response (Slides) Beth
Leader: I pray grace in your lives on this day.
Response: We share Peace with you on this day.
Leader: I give thanks to God for each of you, always mentioning you in my prayers.
Response: We remember God’s work of faith & love poured out on each of us.
Leader: Your faith is evidenced in your steadfast love.
Response: Our hope is only because of the work of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Leader: We know that you are loved and chosen by God. You have been gifted with God’s welcome and inclusive embrace.
Response: We are chosen by God only because of our transformation gifted to us through the Spirit.
Leader: Your lives are proof of that, your hearts are seen in that, your hope is undeniable in that.
Response: May we be imitators of the Lord in the best and worst of days.
Leader: May you be an example to all who believe, in joyful times and in times of pain and persecution. May the message of your lives be seen and heard.
Response: May we hold to our hope in the times that seem hopeless, my we continue to love in the times we feel unloved.
Leader: May the good news of God continue to flow from your lives into all the world. May the love of the Lord be presented through your lives.
Response: May our lives be the light to our world that has settled for darkness.
Leader: Join us in the prayer of Jesus,
[Slide] Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[Slide] Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.
[Slide] Give us this day our daily bread.
[Slide] Forgive us our trespasses, while we forgive those who trespass against us.
[Slide] And, lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
[Slide] For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.
Music (Slides) Billy/Team
Revelation Song CCLI Song # 4447960
Verse 1
Worthy is the Lamb Who was slain
Holy holy is He
Sing a new song to Him Who sits on
Heaven’s mercy seat
Chorus
Holy holy holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Who was and is and is to come
With all creation I sing
Praise to the King of kings
You are my ev’rything
And I will adore You
Verse 2
Clothed in rainbows of living color
Flashes of lightning rolls of thunder
Blessing and honor strength and glory
And power be to You the only wise King
Verse 3
Filled with wonder awestruck wonder
At the mention of Your name
Jesus Your name is power breath and living water
Such a marv’lous mystery yeah
Jesus Lover Of My Soul 1198817
Verse
Jesus lover of my soul
Jesus I will never let You go
You’ve taken me from the miry clay
You’ve set my feet upon the rock
And now I know
Chorus
I love You I need You
Though my world may fall
I’ll never let You go
My Savior my closest Friend
I will worship You until the very end
Passage (Slides) Martha
After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue.
Paul, as was his custom, went in and, on three Sabbath days, actively discussed the scriptures with them, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead.
“This is the Messiah Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you.” Paul said.
Some of those present were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and leading women of the community.
But the Jewish institutional leaders became upset at what Paul was saying, and with the help of some ruffians out in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar.
While the mob were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked the house of a recent Christian convert named Jason, who was hosting Paul and Silas at his house.
When Paul and Silas could not be found, the mob dragged Jason and some other believers, men and women, before the city authorities.
Their accusation was, “These people who have been turning the world upside down and are now doing it here in our community. It is Jason who has brought them here and is hosting them in his house. They are rebelling against the emperor saying that there is another king named Jesus.”
The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this, and after they had taken bail from Jason and the others, they let them go.
Acts 17:1-9
Message Rick
[Do not screen share until first slide is noted]
Introduction
- The contradiction of Humanity
- The description the Christian Life
[Begin Screen Share until noted to stop]
[Slide] A city on a wicked path
- Thessalonica was a gentile city, important trade city, When the region was conquered by the Romans, Thessalonica was permitted to have self rule but the arrangement was always fragile – rulers were probably easily alarmed at anything that would get negative attention from Rome (much like Jewish leaders in Israel).
- About 250 years after Saul’s epistle there was a slaughter of 7,000 men, women, and children (reason is uncertain)
- Difficult reception for Paul and Silas as well as believers and new believers in the city and the are.
- On the pathway to Sodom and the City of Noah
[Slide] A people on a different path than their surroundings
- Many men and even many women
- Thessalonica church and believers seem to be a different than the image of the city given in Acts and historical findings.
- Election/Chosen as opposed to Choice/Choosing (reformed, predestination, etc)
- ‘We know God has chosen you, because…’
- Our chosenness as well as our willingness, past, present, and future, are all tied intrinsically together. Chosen/elected and Personal Choice(s). Noah, Abraham, Man at temple gate healed by Peter, etc.
Chosen…Because (a people chosen by God and, at the same time, a God chosen by the people)
[Slide] We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
[Slide] For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake.
[Slide] And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy from the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia but in every place your faith in God has become known. (I Thess 1:2-8)
[End Screen Share]
3 legged Stool – The Essential Elements of the Christian Life
- Witness Nee – remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope
- Faith, Labor of Love, and Steadfastness of Hope
- Faith – past/proven, Heroes of faith, moments of our own faith – Abraham, Noah, and Scribe
- Love – Present, our propellent and motivation, greatest commandment
- Hope – Future, A reason, a purpose, to look ahead. This is why Paul speaks often to Thessalonians about the return of Jesus, they believed and hoped toward to such an extent that Paul was often concerned that they may become weary in their hope and stumble, their 3 legged stool of faith will fall over.
Music (Slide) Billy/Team
Jesus Lover Of My Soul 1198817
Verse
Jesus lover of my soul
Jesus I will never let You go
You’ve taken me from the miry clay
You’ve set my feet upon the rock
And now I know
Chorus
I love You I need You
Though my world may fall
I’ll never let You go
My Savior my closest Friend
I will worship You until the very end
Community (Slides) Rick
- Next Sunday, 04.28.24, Cultivating Common, Acts 18:1-4 & 1 Cor. 1:10-18
- Coming – Pizza and games night, This Thursday, April 25 at 6:00pm
Closing Benediction (Slides)
As we leave this place may we allow our hearts and minds to be filled with God’s joy and peace. May God’s imprint challenge us in our every thought, word, and deed. May our lives match up with our chosen label of Christian.
May we live with a sensitivity to the concerns of those around us. May we join them in trusting God on their journey through joy and grief. May we lift them up in our prayers and thoughts. May we be avenues of God’s love being poured out over them.
May God’s Spirit be our constant companion in all that we do and everywhere we go.
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 Song # 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
Order, Words, & Voices 