high and lifted up

“The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…’ ”

Exodus 34:6-7  

High and Lifted Up

Leader: May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us,

People: that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.

Responsive Call To Worship

Psalm 67

Leader: Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

People:  Let the nations be glad and sing for joy,  for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth.

Responsive Call To Worship

Psalm 67

Leader:  Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!

People: The earth has yielded its increase; God, our God, shall bless us.

All: God shall bless us; let all the ends of the earth fear him!

Responsive Call To Worship

Psalm 67

God of this City

Say So Israel Houghton

God of all grace, you love us, but we have not loved you. You call, but we have not listened. We walk away from neighbors in need, wrapped up in our own concerns. By our actions and our attitudes we praise what you condemn. Help us to admit our sin, so that as you come to us in mercy we may repent, turn to you and receive forgiveness and the power to walk in renewed faith; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Amen.

Confession of Sin

Better Is One DayChris Tomlin

Bring your complete Welcome & Response Card to the Welcome Table in the Foyer for your

New Visitor Packet

TODAY12:45-2:30 p.m.—In the Parlor

We need your voice!

Join the United Voices of Faith Easter Choir:

A little classical & lots of soul Thursdays at 7:30pm in the FCF Parlor. 

No experience necessary. Really.  Email trina@fcfchurch.org for practice tracks or just show up!

Scripture ReadingJames 4:1-12

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?  2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. 

Scripture ReadingJames 4:1-12

4 You adulterous people!  Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? 6 But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” 

Scripture ReadingJames 4:1-12

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Scripture ReadingJames 4:1-12

11 Do not speak evil against one another, brothers.  The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.12 There is only one lawgiver and judge, he who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge your neighbor?

S

Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 7

1¶ “Judge not, that you be not judged.

2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

7 ¶ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 ¶ “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

1) The problem with the judgmental heart.

1 ¶ “Judge not, that you be not judged.

2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

“The censorious critic is a fault- finder who is negative and destructive towards other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings. Such a critic puts the worst possible construction on their motives, pours cold water on their proposals and is ungenerous towards their mistakes. Worse such a critic claims the competence and authority to sit in God’s seat of judgment upon their brothers and sisters.”

John Stott

“Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand….10 You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.”

Romans 14:4

2) The practice of the repentant heart.

3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?

4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

“Correct him, but not as a foe nor as an adversary exacting a penalty but as a physician providing medicines yes and even more as a loving brother anxious to rescue and to restore.”

Chrysostom

Cynicism creates a numbness toward life. It finds a cloud behind every silver lining. Satan’s first recorded words are cynical, and he suggests that God’s motives are cynical.

Paul Miller

3) The power in the praying heart.

7 ¶ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you…… 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?...... 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

12 ¶ “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

“Jesus-- knows that we are timid and shy, that we feel unworthy and unfit to present our needs to God. We think that God is so great and we are so tiny that we do not dare to pray….that is why Christ wants to lure us away from such timid thoughts, to remove our doubts, and to have us go ahead confidently and boldly.”

Martin Luther

“Why does God want us to prevail in prayer when He already knows what we need? It is not that he is reluctant to answer right away. The reason has to do with us, not with him; the question is not whether he is ready to give, but whether we are ready to receive. So in prayer we do not prevail on God, but rather prevail on ourselves to submit to God.”

John Stott

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. …..

how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 7:12