In-Person Corporate Worship -August 2, 2020
 
The Session & Deacons are deeply grateful to the Westminster church family for your prayers, patience, and support as we have sought wisdom in applying the recommendations of governing authorities. Orders from various government officials, which closed many businesses, did not mandate that churches close. However, we did discern that it was right and good to honor such authorities when that doesn’t cause us to sin and does help us to protect the health of members and the community (cf. Romans 13:1-7). Therefore, the Session did suspend in-person Worship and other in-person gatherings over the past several weeks, while providing live-stream teaching times to support your personal & family worship and growth in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ.
 
The Session & Deacons have discerned that we may now resume in-person corporate worship, along with some other in-person activities, with certain restrictions in place.  For those who have high risk factors for COVID-19, those who do not feel comfortable attending for various reasons, or those who may have an illness, we urge you to stay at home and participate through the live stream.
 
Click below to access the Live Stream:
 
YouTube Banner Size & YouTube Channel Art Size Guide | May 2020
For those who do attend in person, please adhere to the following guidelines:
 
  • Wear a mask into and out of the building, and maintain social distancing, as we gather and as we depart (it is your choice to remove the mask during the actual worship service); not required for children 12 and under.
  • Enter the building through the front, Main Street doors only and wait to be seated by the Usher Team.  The rear doors will not be unlocked.
  • We will have a staggered seating arrangement that allows the congregation to maintain physical/social distancing and maintain less than 25% room capacity.  This may mean sitting in places where you do not normally sit during worship.  Please be respectful and supportive of our shared efforts in this.  Please also arrive early, to allow extra time for all to be seated.We will not have a nursery or children’s worship, but Fellowship Hall will be available if you need space to attend to your child’s needs.
  • We will not pass out bulletins, and the pew Bibles & Hymnals have been removed, to limit shared handling of items.
  • We will not pass offering plates, but an offering plate will be available as you enter or leave the sanctuary.
  • We will not celebrate the Lord’s Supper until a future date to be determined.
  • We will not have Fellowship Time or Sunday School until a future date to be determined.
  • While we continue in the “Yellow” status we urge you to limit socializing before and after worship (in & out of the building), which includes having children remain with parents.
  • We will limit the number of people to use restrooms at any one time.
  • These decisions are subject to change as conditions warrant.
 
We are genuinely eager to be together in the fellowship of the church family; and yet, even as we begin to regather, it will be wise for some to stay at home for a while longer. It is important for us to love one another well, in recognition that we have all been experiencing this season of life under God’s perfect providence. In all circumstances let us love the Lord and love one another.
 
 
Preparation for Worship- August 2, 2020
 
Gathering & Preparation
“Public worship must be performed in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). Externalism and hypocrisy stand condemned (Isaiah 29:13; Matthew 15:7-9). The forms of public worship have value only when they serve to express the inner reverence of the worshipper and his sincere devotion to the true and living God. And only those whose hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit are capable of such reverence and devotion” (Book of Church Order 47-5)
Prelude –
Psalm 128Blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in his ways! You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands; you shall be blessed, and it shall be well with you. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the LORD. The LORD bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel! (Psalm 128 ESV)
*Call to Worship
Responsive Reading of Psalm 106:6-14, 44-45
Leader: We have sinned, even as our ancestors did; we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

People: When our ancestors were in Egypt, they gave no thought to your miracles; they did not remember your many kindnesses, and they rebelled by the sea, the Red Sea.

 Leader: Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, to make his mighty power known.

People: He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; he led them through the depths as through a desert.

 Leader: He saved them from the hand of the foe; from the hand of the enemy he redeemed them. The waters covered their adversaries; not one of them survived.

People: Then they believed his promises and sang his praise.

 Leader: But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his plan to unfold. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wilderness they put God to the test.

People: So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease among them.

 Leader: Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry;

People: for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented

*Hymn #498                Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners! 

*Prayer of Adoration

*Affirmation of Faith – Westminster Shorter Catechism #84-87

Q84. What does every sin deserve?

A84. Every sin deserves God’s wrath and curse, both in this life, and that which is to come.

Q85. What doth God require of us, that we may escape his wrath and curse, due to us for sin?

A85. To escape the wrath and curse of God, due to us for sin, God requireth of us faith in Jesus Christ, repentance unto life, with the diligent use of all the outward means whereby Christ communicates to us the benefits of redemption.

Q86. What is faith in Jesus Christ?

A86. Faith in Jesus Christ is a saving grace, whereby we receive and rest upon him alone for salvation, as he is offered to us in the gospel.

Q87. What is repentance unto life?

A87. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

*Hymn #485                O Thou That Hear’st When Sinners Cry 

Scripture Reading: Zechariah 1:1-6 (cf. Ezra 5:1-2)

Sermon: Return to Me [Dan Ledford Preaching]

*Hymn                       By Thy Mercy                                              James John Cummins (1839), Greg Thompson (2004)

Unison Prayer of Confession

Lord God! Eternal and Almighty Father, we acknowledge and confess before your holy Majesty that we are poor sinners, conceived and born in guilt and in corruption, prone to do evil, unable of ourselves to do any good, who, by reason of our depravity, transgress without end your holy commandments. Therefore, we have drawn upon ourselves, by your just sentence, condemnation and death. But, O Lord! with heartfelt sorrow, we repent and deplore our offenses. We condemn ourselves and our evil ways, with true penitence, beseeching that your grace may relieve our distress. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
{Silent Prayer}

Assurance & Comfort of the Gospel of Jesus Christ 

*Hymn #246              Man of Sorrows! What a Name 

Prayer of Intercession for Christ’s Church & the World – RE John Richardson

*Hymn                       His Mercy is More                                                                Matt Boswell, Matt Papa (2016)

*Benediction 

Postlude – His Mercy is More 

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