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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)
BENEDICTION
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Our guest is Neil Long. Neil is the Director of Formation and Missions at Park Church.Listen
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We’re in week ten of Exodus, a book all about God’s mission to redeem a people for His Kingdom in this world.
We’re also in week four of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter where we prepare our hearts to remember and celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. A couple good resources for this season include this recent blog by Joel Limpic and the The Christian Year. Here’s how you can prepare for this week at Park:
1. Read through our text, Exodus 7:1–13.
After a season of resistance and hesitation, Moses has finally come to the point of trust and obedience to the call of God on His life. God will speak to Moses, and Aaron will his spokesperson before Pharaoh. The passage reiterates that Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord commanded. They performed God’s sign before Pharaoh, turning Aaron’s staff into a serpent, but the Egyptian magicians matched their sign, turning their own staffs to serpents. The dual of powers had begun, and the story is clear about who will prevail.
Aaron’s staff swallowed up the Egyptian magician’s staffs, displaying the supreme power of Yahweh above all other powers. This first sign sets the trajectory for the rest of the ten plagues that will follow. In the end, the power of Yahweh will prevail against all who oppose Him. This demonstration of the power of the Lord, however, did not move Pharaoh’s hardened heart. He continued in his refusal to let the people go, just like the Lord had foretold to Moses.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 95:1–3, 6–7
Praise To The Lord The Almighty (Joachim Neander, Catherine Winkworth addl. verse Joel Limpic, JD Raab)
The Lion And The Lamb (Brenton Brown, Brian Johnson, Leeland Mooring)
CONFESSION OF SIN: From The Worship Sourcebook:
We confess today that though You are a great God, we act as if we are gods without regard for You. Though You are a great king, we act as if we are kings and queens ruling our individual kingdoms. Though You are our good Shepherd, we stray like sheep far from Your pasture and care. Though You are a God who speaks, we harden our hearts and busy ourselves with a million other things.
Today, would You soften our distracted hearts by Your Spirit? Where there are barriers and blockades, would You tear them down? Where there are anxieties and fears, would You still them? Where there is shame, would You lift our eyes to see Your kind loving eyes? We want to hear Your voice and in turn follow You as beloved children of God. Not just today, but also throughout the week! In our homes, in our jobs, in our lives. For this we need Your grace and Your power.
In Jesus’ powerful name, amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Matthew 11:28–30
O Come To The Altar (Brock, Brown, Furtick, and Joye)
GREETING, SERMON, RESPONSE, & COMMUNION
Christ The Sure And Steady Anchor (Matt Boswell, Matt Papa)
Living Hope (Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham)
BENEDICTION
Last August, we celebrated 10 years as a church.
We gathered at Morse Park to eat, drink, and celebrate God’s kindness to us!
We’re grateful for all that He’s done in and through us, and expectant for his Holy Spirit to move even more in the city of Denver and beyond.
Melanie Fenwick took the above photos of our time, and we wanted to share those with you now. Enjoy!
in Blog
The artwork for our Exodus series was illustrated by hand by Christian Robinson of Oklahoma City. If that name sounds familiar, or if the style of the artwork looks familiar, it’s because Christian was our artist for Genesis as well. As such, the artwork for Exodus serves as fitting follow-up to Genesis.
The book of Exodus, in short, is about God’s mission to redeem a people for His kingdom in this world. Christian’s artwork, in three pieces, illustrates the narrative of the book:
Part Two, the central piece, shows the path through the Red Sea: a sort of climax to the story, God’s final crushing of Pharaoh, and the gateway between the first and second half of the narrative.
Part One depicts Egypt and the way out of it. Egypt’s God-rejecting kingdom is symbolized by their man-made glory-mountains (the pyramids) and false gods (represented by the hawk, symbolic for Ra). The stalks of straw speak to Israel’s oppression and the cruelty of their overlords (ch. 5), while the path and the blood over the doorway describe the ultimate trajectory of the story as seen in the Passover and the people’s flight out of Egypt.
Part Three depicts Mount Sinai and Moses. Images on this piece show a direct contrast to the images on the Part One panel—instead of man-made mountains and false gods, Mount Sinai (an actual God-made mountain) looms in unapproachable glory and gloom and fire and smoke and the presence of the only true God. Moses in the foreground represents both God’s leadership and His giving of the Law, His means for His redeemed children to be holy.
This is our ninth week in the book of Exodus, a book all about God’s mission to redeem a people for His Kingdom in this world.
This is also the third week of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter where we prepare our hearts to remember and celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. A couple good resources for this season include this recent blog by Joel Limpic and The Christian Year. Here’s how you can prepare for our service together this week:
1. Read through our text, Exodus 6:14–7:7.
Here we come across our first genealogy in the book of Exodus. Although genealogies have a reputation for being boring and challenging to read, they actually play a significant role in the narrative.
First, the genealogy connects the story to real, ordinary, Hebrew families. This is not a fictional story about some mythical hero. It’s a story about real people, real families, and what God did to deliver them from evil and to make them into His People. Second, the genealogy serves to connect Moses and Aaron to the broader story of God. This genealogy picks up from the genealogies in Genesis that go all of the way back to Adam and Eve, reminding us of God’s promise that an offspring of the woman will come to crush the head of the serpent and restore God’s blessing to the world (Genesis 3:15). Moses and Aaron stand in continuity with that promise, and the evil reign of Pharaoh stands in continuity with the serpent as the enemy of God and His people.
Though the people of God have suffered greatly, God again promises that He will deliver them and crush His enemies under His feet.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 90:1–2; 12
All Creatures Of Our God And King (William Henry Draper, St. Francis of Assisi arr. The Christian Year)
Yet Even Now (Joel Limpic)
CONFESSION OF SIN: From The Worship Sourcebook:
Most merciful God
whose Son, Jesus Christ, was tempted in every way, yet was without sin,
we confess before You our own sinfulness;
we have hungered after that which does not satisfy;
we have compromised with evil;
we have doubted Your power to protect us.
Forgive our lack of faith; have mercy on our weakness.
Restore in us such trust and love that we may walk in Your ways and delight in doing Your will.
Amen.
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 Peter 1:3–5
Living Hope (Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham)
GREETING, SERMON, RESPONSE, & COMMUNION
O Come To The Altar (Brock, Brown, Furtick, and Joye)
VOCATION COMMISSIONING: FINANCE
Your Labor Is Not In Vain (Wendell Kimbrough, Isaac Wardell, Paul Zach)