The worship notes for this week are attached as a PDF document.  I pray that they are a helpful preparation for our time of worship together on Sunday.

Grace&peace
Tim

WN 1008.01.pdf

Greetings Redeemer family,

When was the last time you took a look at the front of our bulletin? Do you know what’s written there?

To all who are spiritually weary and seek rest; to all who mourn and long for comfort; to all who struggle and desire victory; to all who sin and need a Savior; to all who are strangers and want fellowship; to all who hunger and thirst after righteousness; and to all who will come, this church opens wide her doors and offers welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This week we are taking a very special break from our Summer series on the Fruit of the Spirit. What’s so special about it? We have the great pleasure this week of welcoming Rob Edwards, pastor of Mercy Presbyterian – our church’s first daughter plant in Forest. That’s right – our daughter church now has its own name and pastor, and is quickly gaining an identity and an impact in the Forest community. Rob will be teaching from Luke 7:36-50, asking the question, “Who is comfortable at Jesus’ table?”

As I write this, I’m thinking about the developing identity of Mercy Presbyterian in Forest. I’m thinking about Redeemer’s transition as we purchase, renovate, and prepare for a new season of ministry in Lynchburg. In all of this, it is my prayer that we are empowered by God’s grace to live out the words quoted above. I pray that Mercy and Redeemer would be places where the weary and hungry, the struggler and the stranger, the lonely and lost might come and find hope, help, and love.

I’m also excited, because this isn’t something that we need to wait for with wishful optimism. No, this is something we can have this week. We can – by God’s grace and Spirit – be this kind of church on Sunday. Not because we’re good people or we have everything figured out or we have great resources. We’re none of those things. But we serve a God who alone is good, wise, and powerful. He proved His love for us in sending His Son, and so He will not withhold any good thing from His beloved children. Instead, He delights to bless us with the best thing we could ask for or imagine: the sweet gift of His presence. Because He has welcomed and loved us, we can turn and offer the same to each other, our neighbors, and the world.

So come expectant this Sunday, and let’s ask God to make us that welcoming church this week, for His glory and kingdom.

Welcomed by our Savior,

Tim Sharpe

Worship Director

Greetings Redeemer family,

This week we continue in our series on the Fruit of the Spirit, this time looking at the fruit of Peace. Peace is an odd thing in our world today. As a country, we’re 7 years into a “War on Terror,” yet it was quiet in my neighborhood when I woke up this morning. It’s been decades since I’ve been in a serious, physical fight with someone else, but I can quickly lose my temper with other drivers on the road. I can walk by over a hundred people during the course of my day, and be totally unaware of the deep anxieties and fears that plague each one of us.

Peace, it seems, is a fleeting thing at best. So what does it mean for us to be a people of Peace, who serve a God of Peace?

Our call to worship this week comes from Romans 5, and is a reminder of the definitive, objective peace that we have because of the work of Christ – our Prince of Peace – on our behalf.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Through Him we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand,

and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

According to Romans 5, the proper response to the peace we now have with God is to rejoice in worshipful thanksgiving to our great and glorious God.

Most holy, most glorious, the Ancient of Days

Almighty, victorious; Your great Name we praise

Our second song is a reminder that we are called to praise God in the midst of every circumstance of life – because His character and wisdom are unchanging. He is the same: yesterday, today, and forever. He is a solid foundation for the peace of our souls.

Blessed be Your name

In the land that is plentiful

Where Your streams of abundance flow

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name

When I’m found in the desert place

Though I walk through the wilderness

Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out

I’ll turn back to praise

When the darkness closes in, Lord

Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your name

Blessed be the name of the Lord

Blessed be Your glorious name

It is the peace of Christ which alone can give us the ability to praise God in the midst of hard circumstances. He graciously offers this power to all who would call upon His name. He then grants us the privilege to be people of His peace, carrying His compassion to a world in need of reconciliation.

Everyone needs compassion

Love that’s never failing

Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness

The kindness of a Savior

The hope of nations

Savior, He can move the mountains

My God is mighty to save

He is mighty to save

Forever, Author of salvation

He rose and conquered the grave

Jesus conquered the grave

Because the feeling of peace is so often fleeting and unwieldy, it is easy to think that Peace is just a nice add-on to the Christian experience. We’re tempted to believe that it is something that some people get and others don’t. The writers of the Westminster Catechism saw things differently. They saw the blessings of God being offered to all believers in increasing greatness.

Q. 36. What are the benefits which in this life

do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification?
A. The benefits which in this life do accompany or flow from justification, adoption, and sanctification, are, assurance of God’s love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy Ghost,

increase of grace, and perseverance therein to the end.

We close our service this week with a sweet reminder of the definitive peace that we have with God because of the work of Christ. One of my favorite lyrics in this regard comes from “Mercy Speaks by Jesus’ Blood”:

Peace of conscience, peace with God

We obtain through Jesus’ blood

Jesus’ blood speaks solid rest

We believe and we are blest

We believe and we are blest

My prayer this weekend is that you would be reminded of the power of Jesus’ blood – that it would speak a solid rest to your soul. A rest that cannot be moved or shaken or broken by the changing winds of this world. This perfect peace is completely won by our eternal King by His finished work on the cross. I pray that we would believe this, and experience the blessings of being His own.

Because of Christ, we must and shall go free!

Tim Sharpe

Worship Director