April 7, 2019
This will be our 11th week in the book of Exodus, discussing God’s mission to redeem a people for His Kingdom in this world.
This is also the fifth week of Lent, the ending of the season of 40 days leading up to Easter. Next Sunday, April 14, will be Palm Sunday, followed by Good Friday on April 19 and Easter Sunday on April 21. But here’s how you can prepare for the Sunday ahead of us:
1. Read through our text, Exodus 7:14–11:10.
The drama of the Exodus story increases with God’s decree of the ten plagues. Far from being a cavalier showcase of power, the plagues are each aimed at very specific purposes. First and foremost, each of the plagues are an escalated judgment against Pharaoh’s evil and hard-hearted determination to keep God’s people in slavery. Second, the plagues are also specifically designed to show the people of Egypt the sovereign power of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Each plague makes a disrupting example out of a specific Egyptian deity, explicitly targeted at the three realms of Egypt’s primary sources of life—the Nile, the land, and the sun.
Last, the plagues are also intended to show the Israelites the sovereign power of Yahweh, their Redeemer. When the people experience deliverance from their brutal experience in slavery, and when they are free to live in their own land with their God, they will be forever look back and see that it was not their strength or cunning that saved them—There was was no epic human hero. It was Yahweh, and Yahweh alone.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 91:1–6, 9–10
Build My Life (Barrett, Kable, Martin, Redman, Younker)
Yet Even Now (Joel Limpic)
CONFESSION OF SIN:
Oh God who is both fearful and merciful,
We confess that we often forget whose people we used to be,
and whose people we are now.
Forgive us when we consider ourselves above judgement
and surely on the “Israel” side of the plagues,
for this is only true so far as Christ, our Passover Lamb, has borne our judgement.
Forgive us also when we consider ourselves targeted by You,
afflicted by You, and surely on the “Egypt” side of the plagues,
for Christ, our Passover Lamb, is the one who was truly smitten by You,
and afflicted by You on our behalf.
Father, as we consider the endless joy You now take in us as a result of Your Son’s work,
we repent both of our ignorance to our sin and our ignorance to our salvation.
We gratefully receive His work,
and we ask You for greater joy in all that it means for us,
through Jesus Christ our Savior, amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 Peter 2:9–10
What A Beautiful Name (Ben Fielding, Brooke Ligertwood)
GREETING, SERMON, RESPONSE, & COMMUNION
King Of My Heart (John Mark McMillan, Sarah McMillan)
Stronger (Ben Fielding, Reuben Morgan)