Bible Verses for Sunday Service April 2, 2023
John 12:13
So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!”
Announcements:
Choir members meet for practice right after service today.
Awana awards night is April 5th at 6:30 to 8PM. We will recognize and reward the children for memorizing Scripture and completing the work in the Awana handbooks. As another great year in Awana draws to a close, we want to thank the leaders and give glory to the Lord for His provision and enabling us to have such a ministry to the children of our community.
Next Sunday is Easter and we will meet for breakfast and have a short time of praise and worship as we celebrate the Lord’s resurrection. We plan to have communion as part of the praise service. Please sign up so we know how many are coming and what food we need.
On April 20, LaVie will host 321 Improv, a Christian improv group. Laughter will fill that night, along fun and prizes. Everyone is welcome, but it is geared towards youth ages 11-18. While it is a fundraiser for LaVie, SBC will receive free tickets for their youth groups. Pastor Jim needs to know by Feb 28 how many tickets to request. You can find more information on the church bulletin board.
Spring Ladies’ Luncheon is on April 29 at 11AM to 1PM. Planned is a time of fellowship for women of all ages. Please bring your family and friends. We will soon put up a sign up sheet for attendance and food.
Vacation Bible School is coming soon, June 5-9. Please be sure to mark your calendars. We look forward to an exciting week of ministering to children. VBS runs from 9AM to 11:45AM. As usual, we need people to help so please let Natasha know if you can give of your time that week
Special: Choir
As listed in the church program, the choir performed “When He was on the Cross.” If you would just like to watch this aspect of the service, or listen again to this song, you can watch here, or you can watch online.
Sermon:
Continuing in Luke, Pastor spoke to us on Luke, Pastor chose several passages including Luke 6:12-13 to illustrate “The Prayer Life of the Savior.” Pastor remarked on several national calls for prayer in the news recently, including the Buffalo Bills player who had a heart attack while playing, and the weatherman who asked for prayer for a town in the path of a tornado. Most recently many in the nation prayed for the adults and children murdered in Tennessee. Some on the national stage reject prayer, but we put our faith in it as the Bible. James 5:16, states the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. With this in mind, Pastor covered Jesus’ stance on prayer.
In his first point, Pastor asked us to consider that Jesus’ prayers were habitual. He regularly got away from the crowds that came for healing, food and miracles to pray. He needed to be alone with His Father to sustain Him and His work now he was limited by His choice to be in a human form.
In praying, Jesus is always intentional. Before any important decision, he prayed. Here in this section of Luke, He prayed before selecting from His disciples who would be apostles. We see this also in James, who commends us to pray for wisdom if we lack it. Besides decisions, Jesus also prayed to avert potential disasters, like Satan’s challenge to Peter’s fledgling faith. We see this aspect of Jesus’ work post the resurrection. In Hebrews and Romans we have the assurance that Jesus is seated at the right hand side of the Father making constant intercession for us. So just like him, for example, we should be praying continually for our children, seeking help for them in this world.
Pastor brought special focus on Jesus’ intercession for us by providing the following quote from Robert Murray McCheyne, an old Scottish pastor. He said: “If I can hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet the distance makes no difference; He is praying for me.”
Lastly, Pastor used Jesus’ example to illustrate essential prayer. Jesus was most tested in the Garden of Gethsemane. There He showed His full knowledge of obeying the Father’s will, drinking down the full cup of God’s wrath. But He also showed His complete willingness to do this. While doing this He showed His human nature. God helped Him through providing an angel to strengthen Him.
For a conclusion Pastor asked us to look at how Jesus prayed, and to copy His structure. Pastor characterized it as firstly, please, next thank you and lastly sorry for our sins. Let’s utilize this wonderful gift, prayer, regularly for others and our own needs.
Accessing the Service, Bulletin and Sermon Outline:
Here are the pages from the bulletin, click on the images below to see them full size:
If you would like to have the sermon outline, you can download it here, a pdf file.
If you would like a link to this service you can find it here. Perhaps you would like to share it with your friends. You could also share that link on social media, if you use any of the providers. We use Rumble, a safe alternative to Google’s YouTube.