PROMISES
Good morning, Life Church, we are glad you are here worshiping with us. I am glad to be worshiping with you this morning. This past week I had the chance to go to Kenya and lead worship for a group of missionaries from all around the world. And I am aware that I am able to go and serve in that way because my family and my church family released and sent me to go and serve. So on behalf of those that I served this past week, thank you for allowing me to go and serve. They wanted to make sure that I expressed their gratitude to you, our church family for allowing me to serve. And on behalf of my family and me, thank you for caring for and praying for my family while I was away. There are so many things I am still processing about all that I saw and heard, but a few things that I hope will encourage you: I heard the testimony of a woman from a closed country in Asia saying that she was her coworkers have been asking her to pray for them, asking if she can tell them about who Jesus is and what He has done. I shared a meal with a woman serving in Turkey who told me about how she had lost friends in the earthquake, and I was able to tell her that our church prayed for her during the week of the earthquake. I had the sacred privilege of being able to put a name and a face to a place that seemed so far away. I think we can so often think of missionaries as spiritual superheroes… But I am always struck by how ordinary these people are. They have skills, trades, educations, experience, families, and desires, just like us - but they have chosen to very intentionally use those things to serve a specific group of people - sometimes in their home countries, sometimes in far-flung locations. And I do hope and pray that God will raise up and send our missionaries to the ends of the earth from our church community. But I also hope and pray that as we gather week after week and hear God’s Word preached, read, sung, and prayed, and as we gather with our Life Groups and seek to apply God’s Word to our lives, we would be so completely transformed in heart and desire, that we would intentionally live on mission wherever God has placed us. And if you’re wondering, yes, I did wear all black every day, even in the African heat. Let’s hear God call us to worship through His word, this is from Psalm 24:
Call to Worship: Psalm 24:1-6
WHAT YOU SAID
I SHALL NOT WANT
Sermon: Mark 4:35-41

Corporate Confession:

Merciful God,
We confess that we have sinned against You
in thought, word, and deed,
By what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved You with our whole heart and mind and strength. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
In Your mercy forgive what we have been,
help us amend what we are,
And direct what we shall be,
So that we may delight in your will and walk in Your ways, To the glory of Your holy name.
Through Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Communion