Scripture Reading:
#1. Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me (Jesus) alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. (John 16:32)
#2. (God speaking to Job) “Can you bind the chains of the Pleiades or loose the cords of Orion? (Job 38:31)
Prayer of Praise to God: Refer to the verses above and hymn below.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
Refrain: On Christ, the solid rock, I stand; all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.
In ev’ry rough and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the vale.
When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]
Not earth, nor hell, my soul can move; I rest upon unchanging love.
I trust his righteous character, his counsel, promise, and his pow’r. [Refrain]
When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]
Reading of the Law: If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. (James 2:8-10)
Silent Confession of Sin/Confession of Sin: Gracious God, we confess that we have longed too much for the comforts of this world. We have loved the gifts more than the giver. In your mercy, help us to see that all the things we pine for are shadows, but you are substance; that they are quicksand, but you are a mountain; that they are shifting, but you are an anchor. We plead your forgiveness on the merits of Jesus Christ. Accept his worthiness for our unworthiness, his sinlessness for our transgressions, his fullness for our emptiness, his glory for our shame, his righteousness for our dead works, his death for our life. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Reading of the Gospel: He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)
Heidelberg Catechism: Lord’s Day 13
Question #33
Q. Why is he called God’s “only begotten Son” when we also are God’s children?
A. Because Christ alone is the eternal, natural Son of God. We, however, are adopted children of God—adopted by grace through Christ.
Question #34
Q. Why do you call him “our Lord”?
A. Because—not with gold or silver, but with his precious blood—he has set us free from sin and from the tyranny of the devil, and has bought us, body and soul, to be his very own.
Prayer of Thanksgiving: Thank God for our local church and for the grace and mercy He shows to us.
Prayer of Supplication: Pray for our missionaries and the Magistrate.
Bible reading and commentary:
Read: 1 Corinthians 7:25-40
In response to the Corinthians’ questions, Paul gives additional instructions to them regarding celibacy and marriage, emphasizing that virgins and widows face fewer hardships in life and have greater freedom to serve the Lord than married people.
Protestant commentators agree that Paul’s teaching on marriage is a timeless, divine truth; at the same time, they seek to correct various ways in which church leaders have misunderstood or misapplied his instructions. Commentators reject the notion that the celibate state has intrinsic spiritual value or is deserving of God’s special merit. Instead, they insist that God’s intention is that most adults get married and participate in family life which is an excellent environment for Christian sanctification.
Paul gives men and women complete freedom to choose their marital status and church leaders should do the same. Protestant commentators advise fathers to be especially sensitive to the needs and dispositions of their daughters, neither forcing marriage on daughters who have been given the gift of celibacy nor preventing marriage to mature daughters who desire to take a husband. Also rejected are the church traditions that discourage or prevent widows from remarriage. The larger view that must be kept in view is whether single or married, Christians are called to live as pilgrims on earth, mindful of the brevity of life, thankful for the blessings of this world without being burdened or ensnared in them.
The grace of Christian contentment encompasses Paul’s entire argument. We should be content whether single or married. If married, the Christian should be relating to their spouse in a selfless way. God’s providential orchestration of your circumstances is his will for you. No matter what decisions we make, God's providence will factor in. We need to be aware that our decision making process is not to be done without God in mind.
To be content is to be satisfied in our present situation. True contentment can only be found in Christ.
John Calvin on contentment - “Where there is plenty, to wallow in delights, or gorge oneself, to intoxicate mind and heart with present pleasures and be always panting after new ones – such are very far removed from a lawful use of God’s gifts.”
“Away, then, with uncontrolled desire, away with immoderate prodigality (extravagantly), away with vanity and arrogance – in order that men may with a clean conscience cleanly use God’s gifts. Where the heart is tempered to this soberness they will have a rule for lawful use of such blessings.”
“But should this moderation be lacking, even base and common pleasures are too much. …Thus let every man live in his station, whether slenderly (with little), or moderately, or plentifully, so that all may remember God nourishes them to live, not luxuriate (self-indulgent). And let them regard this as the law of Christian freedom: to have learned with Paul, in whatever state they are, to be content; to know how to be humble and exalted; to have been taught, in all circumstances, to be filled and to hunger, to abound and to suffer want (Phil. 4:11-12).
“The secret of happiness is that it is necessary for us to go outside of ourselves (look to Christ) to find happiness.”
Martin Luther on contentment - “For what God gives I thank indeed; What he withholds I do not need.” This is my motto: to be able to be satisfied.
Closing Hymn: The Doxology
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise him, all creatures here below; Praise him above, ye heav’nly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen
Closing Scripture: Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. (1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
The Lord’s Prayer (together): 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. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.