November 18, 2018

We’re in our eleventh week in the book of Ephesians. As our society continues its trend toward self-centered and superficial worldviews, many have adopted a watered-down view of God that that leads us away from the glory we were made to enjoy. Ephesians shatters this diluted view of God by putting the weight of His glory in our faces in a way that is overwhelming and life-transforming.

Here’s how you can prepare for Sunday:

1. Read through our text, Ephesians 5:22–33.

Paul continues to connect the life-transforming implications of the love of Christ to a few specific relationships in the Christian household. First, he talks about how the relationship between husbands and wives is designed by God to show something of Jesus’ relationship with His church. A Christian Husband is responsible for representing the love of Jesus by sacrificing his own interests and prioritizing His wife’s well-being above his own. A Christian wife is called to represent the church’s submission to and respect for Jesus by allowing her husband to take the responsibility of sacrificial leadership and to respect him as the one who will give an account for how he handled that responsibility. When husbands and wives live into this design, they put on display the beauty of Jesus’ sacrificial love for His Bride, the Church.

2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:

CALL TO WORSHIP: Based on Psalm 150, Welcome (From Immanuel Nashville):

To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
with a welcome from Jesus Christ,
the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

All Creatures Of Our God And King (William Henry Draper, St. Francis of Assisi)
God Is So Good (You Are Worthy) (Pat Barrett, Daniel Bashta, Ben Smith)

CONFESSION OF SIN: From Every Season Prayers by Scotty Smith:

Dear heavenly Father, we come into Your presence this morning only because Your mercies are new every morning. We stand before You in this place only because we stand firmly in Your grace. We dare call You Abba Father only because You have made us Your beloved sons and daughters. We freely confess our sins to You only because You fully gave Jesus for us. For the ways we loved poorly this past week—in our families, at our vocations, and among our neighbors, forgive us.From the foolish idols to which we cling, the broken cisterns from which we drink, and the false lovers to which we turn, free us. For not believing Jesus is enough and Your grace is sufficient, and for not trusting You to be really sovereign and really good, have mercy on us. Our hope rests alone in Jesus’ finished work and Your steadfast love. Amen.

Jesus We Love You (Kalley Heiligenthal, Hannah McClure, Paul McClure)

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Colossians 1:18–22

Hallelujah, What A Savior (Bliss, Carter, Ivey, Suh arr. Austin Stone)

GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer

Ever Be (Strand, Greely, Wilson, Heiligenthal)
O Praise The Name (Anástasis) (Benjamin Hastings, Marty Sampson, Dean Ussher)

BENEDICTION

in Preparing for Sunday

November 11, 2018

It’s week 10 of Ephesians: As our society continues its trend toward self-centered and superficial worldviews, many have adopted a watered-down view of God that that leads us away from the glory we were made to enjoy. Ephesians shatters this diluted view of God by putting the weight of His glory in our faces in a way that is overwhelming and life-transforming.

Here’s how you can prepare for Sunday:

1. Read through our text, Ephesians 5:1–21.

Continuing where chapeter 4 left off, Paul connects his call to represent Christ in the world to our identity as beloved children of God. Christians are to reflect the sacrificial love that we have seen and experienced in Jesus. This sort of life is to be characterized by purity and thankfulness. The Church is to shine the life-giving light of God’s love into a world that is filled with a darkness that leads people toward shame and destruction. The way to this sort of life is an increasing dependence upon the power and influence of the Holy Spirit. As a Christian increasingly experiences the power of the Holy Spirit, it leads to expressions of thankfulness and a willing deference to one another. All of this is rooted in and empowered by one’s experience of the sacrificial love of Jesus.

2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:

CALL TO WORSHIP: Based on Isaiah 60:1–3, Welcome (From Immanuel Nashville):

To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
with a welcome from Jesus Christ,
the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

Fall Afresh (Jeremy Riddle)
God Is So Good (You Are Worthy) (Pat Barrett, Daniel Bashta, Ben Smith)

CONFESSION OF SIN: From The Worship Sourcebook:

Our Father in heaven, we thank You
that You have led us into the light.
We thank You for sending the Savior to call us from death to life.
We confess that we were dead in sin before we heard His call,
but when we heard Him, like Lazarus, we arose.
But, O Father, the grave clothes bind us still.
Old habits that we cannot throw off,
old customs that are so much a part of our lives
that we are helpless to live the new life that Christ calls us to live.
Give us strength, O Father, to break the bonds;
give us courage to live a new life in You;
give us faith to believe that with Your help we cannot fail.
All this we ask in the name of the Savior
who has taught us to come to You. Amen.

Nothing But The Blood (Robert Lowry, arr. Charlie Hall)

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 Peter 1:3–5

Living Hope (Brian Johnson, Phil Wickham)

GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer

Christ Is Risen (Mia Fieldes, Matt Maher)
Take My Life And Let It Be (Frances Ridley Havergal, Henri Abraham Cesar Malan, arr. Norton Hall Band)

BENEDICTION

in Preparing for Sunday

November 4, 2018

This is our ninth week in the book of Ephesians at Park Church. As our society continues its trend toward self-centered and superficial worldviews, many have adopted a watered-down view of God that that leads us away from the glory we were made to enjoy. Ephesians shatters this diluted view of God by putting the weight of His glory in our faces in a way that is overwhelming and life-transforming.

Here’s how you can prepare for Sunday:

1. Read through our text, Ephesians 4:17–32.

Paul carries the imagery of the Christian family as the body of Christ into the next section where he explains that Christians exist in the world as a representation of the love of Jesus. Before experiencing the life and love of Jesus, people are darkened in their minds and bent in their desires. But those who have been made alive with Christ are being renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit to represent the image of Christ in the world as a new humanity. He compares the old way of life to an old set of clothes that need to be taken off and replaced by the new clothes of a new life. The love of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit must move Christians to take off destructive desires and actions that mark the old way of life—lying, anger, theft, hurtful words, bitterness, promiscuity, and drunkenness. These are to be displaced by a spirit-empowered love for others that is marked by honesty, peace, faithful work, generosity, encouragement, forgiveness, self-control, and a sensitivity to God’s Spirit.

2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:

CALL TO WORSHIP: Based on Ephesians 3:18–19, Welcome (From Immanuel Nashville):

O God, by Your power may we, with all the saints, comprehend the breadth and length and height and depth of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with your fullness. Amen.
—
To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
with a welcome from Jesus Christ,
the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

Grace Alone (Dustin Kensrue)
Come Thou Fount (Robert Robinson, John Wyeth)

CONFESSION OF SIN: Based on the Heidelberg Catechism, Questions 88–90:

Genuine repentance involves two things:
the dying-away of the old self and the coming-to-life of the new. The dying-away of the old self is to be genuinely sorry for sin, to hate it more and more, and to run away from it. The coming-to-life of the new self is wholehearted joy in God through Christ and a delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to. Together, as Christ’s body, we now confess our sin and express our longing to live in joyful obedience to God.

In Tenderness (Garvey, Gordon, Walton arr. Brian Eichelberger)
Jesus Is Better (Aaron Ivey, Brett Land)

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 2 Corinthians 5:17–19

GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer

Honest Work (James Craig Hartz Jr.)
Give Us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall)

BENEDICTION

in Preparing for Sunday

Trudy Swain

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Our guest is Trudy Swain. She’s the Associate Director of Save Our Youth.

Listen

Listen to the show Subscribe in iTunes

Show Notes

3:00 – Who Trudy Swain Is 12:15 – What It’s Like To Be A Save Our Youth Mentor 22:10 – Why Being A Mentor Is So Life Changing 30:30 – Scared Of Being A Mentor? Listen To This 32:50 – How Proximity Can Break Down Misconceptions 35:00 – How To Handle Boundaries As A Mentor 41:40 – Rapid Fire Questions

Links

in James Lepine • Park Church Podcast

October 28, 2018

This is week eight of Ephesians at Park Church. As our society continues its trend toward self-centered and superficial worldviews, many have adopted a watered-down view of God that that leads us away from the glory we were made to enjoy. Ephesians shatters this diluted view of God by putting the weight of His glory in our faces in a way that is overwhelming and life-transforming.

Here’s how you can prepare for Sunday:

1. Read through our text, Ephesians 4:1–16.

Paul urges the church to live their lives in a way that is consistent with the love and grace that they have received from God. This means that they should pursue unity as the one family of God through humility and love for one another. The unity of God’s family, however, should not suppress the beautiful diversity that God has designed for His family. He has given all of His children differing gifts of grace through the one Spirit. Church leaders are given to equip and empower all of God’s people to serve one another according to their own gifts in order that the church would be built up like a new temple where God’s Spirit lives in and works among His people. When each member of the church family is engaged in loving one another and pointing one another to Jesus, then the whole church grows into something like a healthy body where people function with different gifts, but all with a unified mind to serve and glorify Jesus as the head of the body.

2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:

CALL TO WORSHIP: Isaiah 6:1–3, Welcome (From Immanuel Nashville):

To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
with a welcome from Jesus Christ,
the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

Holy, Holy, Holy (Reginald Heber, John Bacchus Dykes)
Build My Life (Barrett, Kable, Martin, Redman, Younker)

CONFESSION OF SIN: From Every Season Prayers by Scotty Smith:

Dear heavenly Father, for calling us to life in Christ, sealing us forever by Your Spirit, and making us Your beloved sons and daughters, we love and adore You. Our standing in grace is irreversible, the riches of our inheritance are incomparable, and the glories of our future are inconceivable. How can we not bow in humility, gratitude, and repentance before You? Forgive the many expressions of our selfishness and pettiness—have mercy on us, Lord. For the ease with which we complain and grumble, whine and resent—have mercy on us, Lord. For our overspending and under-sharing—have mercy on us, Lord. For being generous with criticism and miserly with forgiveness—have mercy on us, Lord. Please, Lord, have mercy on us and have mercy on me. In Jesus’ name and for His glory, we pray. Amen.

Psalm 32:6–7 (Mark Wilkins)

Nothing But The Blood (Robert Lowry, arr. Charlie Hall)

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Ephesians 2:13–18

GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer

Jesus What A Savior (Kirby Kaple)
Take My Life And Let It Be (Frances Ridley Havergal, Henri Abraham Cesar Malan)

BENEDICTION

in Preparing for Sunday

October 21, 2018

We’re in our seventh week of our fall series in Ephesians. As our society continues its trend toward self-centered and superficial worldviews, many have adopted a watered-down view of God that that leads us away from the glory we were made to enjoy. Ephesians shatters this diluted view of God by putting the weight of His glory in our faces in a way that is overwhelming and life-transforming.

Here’s how you can prepare for Sunday:

1. Read through our text, Ephesians 3:14–21.

At the close of his beautiful exposition of God’s grace, Paul turns again to prayer. He humbly pleads with God, the Father of all nations, to give his Ephesian friends strength to experience in their hearts—not merely their minds—the incomprehensible love of Christ. He doesn’t want them to know about the love of God just intellectually, he wants them to experience rich communion with Jesus and to sink their roots down deep into the riches of the boundless love of Christ. Paul prays with confidence knowing that God has the power to do far more than we could ever imagine. As he closes this celebration of God’s love and grace, it’s as if he can’t contain himself—he bursts into doxology, praising the God who is worth of all glory from all generations for all time.

2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:

CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 36:5, 7–9, Welcome (From Immanuel Nashville):

To all who are weary and need rest,
To all who mourn and long for comfort,
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares,
To all who fail and desire strength,
To all who sin and need a Savior,
This church opens wide her doors
with a welcome from Jesus Christ,
the Ally of His enemies, the Defender of the guilty,
the Justifier of the inexcusable, the Friend of sinners.
Welcome!

Come Thou Fount (Above All Else) (Shane Barnard, Robert Robinson, John Wyeth)
Here Is Love (William Edwards, Robert S. Lowry, William Rees)

CONFESSION OF SIN: Psalm 51:1–4a

ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Romans 5:6–8

Reckless Love (Cory Asbury, Caleb Culver, Ran Jackson)

CHILD DEDICATIONS

GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer

Good Good Father (Anthony Brown, Pat Barrett)
I Stand Amazed (How Marvelous) (Charles H. Gabriel, Chris Tomlin)

BENEDICTION

in Preparing for Sunday