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:
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.
All Creatures Of Our God And King (William Henry Draper, St. Francis of Assisi arr. The Christian Year)
Yet Even Now (Joel Limpic)
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.
Living Hope (Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham)
O Come To The Altar (Brock, Brown, Furtick, and Joye)
Your Labor Is Not In Vain (Wendell Kimbrough, Isaac Wardell, Paul Zach)
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Our guests are Steve and Candice Watters. Steve is the Vice President of Communications at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Steve and Candice co-founded the website Boundless.Org.
The title of the conference is Delighting in God’s Good Design, and explores her book, Accidental Feminist. Not only will this be a great weekend of learning, but as women of Park, we will have the opportunity to sit together and learn together!
For more details, and to sign up, click here.
The conference cost is the same as ours ($30) and includes three meals and conference materials. If you are in need of a scholarship, please email kyle@parkchurchdenver.org.
Thanks!
Kyle Nelson
P.S.—We also learned that Jackie Hill Perry is speaking at the Well Church in Boulder those same dates. The cost is $99, so you’re welcome to check out this event instead! Details here. We continue this week in Exodus; week 8. In brief, Exodus is all about God’s mission to redeem a people for His Kingdom in this world.
This is also the second week of Lent, the 40 days leading up to Easter where we prepare our hearts to remember and celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. As a reminder, The Christian Year is a Park Church Music project that provides an artistic accompniament to the historical church calendar with songs, visual art, and prayers for the season. See our resources for Lent here. Here’s how you can prepare for service this week:
For Moses, the reality of Pharaoh’s intensified brutality seemed incongruent with God’s plan. But the Lord had already said that this would take place (vv.4:21). Rather than rebuking Moses for his questions, the Lord reiterated His own covenant promise that He had made long ago to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised that He would free them from their slavery with great acts of judgment, and He would lead them into their own land where He would dwell with them as their Lord and Redeemer. But the deflated morale of the Israelites and of Moses outweighed their confidence in the Lord’s promise. Nonetheless, the Lord had promised, and He would be faithful.
Take A Moment (Will Reagan)
How Great Thou Art (Stuart K. Hine arr. Citizens)
Our Father, forgive us for thinking small thoughts of You
and for ignoring Your immensity and greatness.
Lord Jesus, forgive us when we forget that You rule
the nations and our small lives.
Holy Spirit, we offend You in minimizing Your power
and squandering Your gifts.
We confess that our blindness to Your glory, O triune God, has resulted in shallow confession,
tepid conviction, and only mild repentance.
Have mercy upon us.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Rising Sun (Leslie Jordan, Kyle Lee, David Leonard, Paul Mabury)
Steadfast (Leslie Jordan, Sandra McCracken, Joshua Silverberg)
Yes And Amen (Anthony Brown, Chris McClarney, Nate Moore)
“So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” -Psalm 90:12 Walking through terminal illness, the dying process, death of my life partner and then continuing to live with the immense grief and pain that followed while raising two little kids has brought me to a mental space I didn’t know existed before. When I think about what it means to “number our days”… I think, those days ultimately aren’t ours to begin with. Keith used his earthly days to exercise and train so he could climb harder. He worked long, physically demanding days as a route setter, to improve his trade. He spent late hours shaping climbing holds, to expand his line. Gave endless energy to house renovation projects, bringing ideas to fruition. Gave afternoons to watching football. Or practicing music. Or serving the church. Or resting. 10 years as a husband. 3 1/2 years as a father. 37 years as a son. 35 years as a brother. 20ish years as a believer August 12, 1980 – February 8, 2018 That’s it. The number of Keith Michael Dickey’s days. That’s not easy to write. Feels harsh and somehow still not true. Yet here we are. What did I learn as I watched what Keith wanted from life and worked for with his days, where a tangle of serving God and himself existed… slip from his desperate grasp? As I waited for his last day on this side of eternity, for his last breath from the wretched body that betrayed him? I learned to hold this life, these days with the most open of hands. I can serve and love God and his Creation with what he has given me. I can ask Jesus for forgiveness and confess when I fail. I can honor brokenness and cling to a deep hope in future glory. But I can’t make the days my own. God holds them, they aren’t mine; they never were. I think this painful yet freeing understanding, reached by way of cancer and death and grief and solo parenting, has given or yielded in me a wise heart… or heart of wisdom as they say.