Gathering & Call to Worship

Ruth 2:4
Psalm 124:8
Revelation 1:4-5

The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
Our help is in the Lord,
the maker of heaven and earth.

Grace to you and peace from him who is
and who was and who is to come,
and from the seven spirits who are before his throne,
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness,
the firstborn of the dead,
and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
Amen.

Welcome

Litany of Praise

We bless and thank you, Lord our God,
for the promise you spoke to Noah:
“I establish my covenant with you:
Never again will all life be destroyed
by the waters of a flood.” (Genesis 9:11)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

For the promise you spoke
to Abraham and Sarah:
“I will establish my covenant
as an everlasting covenant
between me and you
and your descendants after you
for the generations to come,
to be your God and the God
of your descendants after you.” (Genesis 17:7)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

For the promise you spoke to
Moses, Miriam, and the people of Israel:
“If you obey me fully
and keep my covenant,
then you will be
my treasured possession.
You will be for me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:5-6)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

Confession and Assurance

Call to Confession Hosea 6:1, 7

But we, like Adam and Israel, have transgressed the covenant
and dealt faithlessly with you.

Here is what Hosea says,
“Come let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.”

Let us come and confess our sin before our covenanting God.

Prayer of Confession

God of everlasting love,
we are covenant breakers,
and our idols are many:
money, power, reputation, pleasure, convenience.

We serve ourselves instead of you.
We have not loved you with our whole
heart and mind and strength,
nor our neighbor as ourselves.

We pursue our own plans,
forge our own paths,
build our own kingdoms.

Forgive us, gracious God,
and keep covenant with us.
Bring us back into the fullness of your love,
restore to us the joy of your salvation,
and make us your holy people,
a kingdom of priests,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hear the gospel of the covenanting God:

Litany of Assurance: Our Covenanting God, verses 4-6

For the promise you spoke to David:
“I will raise up your offspring
to succeed you,
your own flesh and blood,
and I will establish the throne
of his kingdom forever.” (2 Samuel 7:12-13)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

For the promise
you spoke through Jeremiah:
“This is the covenant I will make
with the people of Israel:
I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

For the promise you spoke through Jesus:
“This is my blood
of the new covenant,
which is poured out for many
for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:28/Luke 22:20)
With joy,
your people heard the sure promise: 

Response of Trust: Our Covenanting God, verse 7

Heirs of the promise, called by your Spirit,
we hear again these gracious promises.
With joy and trust we declare:
You are our God; we are your people. 

Our Covenanting God:  David A. Hoekema, 1978, © 1985 Faith Alive Christian Resources
Used by permission, CCLI #220360

Call to Holy Living Philippians 2:1-4

As God’s covenant people, hear the life God calls us to, the sort of people we are to be for the life of the world:

2 If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.

The Peace

The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
And also with you.



Time with Children

Prayer of Illumination

Scripture Reading

Genesis 6

6 When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My spirit shall not abide in mortals forever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown.

5 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.

9 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

Sermon

The Gospel in the Flood

Song

Prayers of the People

God of covenant love,

Great is your faithfulness, for your steadfast love endures forever, even through a flood. And so our prayers this morning are simple.

We pray your faithfulness over creation:

Where the curse still spreads its deadly poison—in drought and famine, in hurricane and in flood and in fire; in virus and illness and death, give rest to your creation through the work of our hands.

We pray your faithfulness over our nation:

Where we still murder each other in our hearts, and society breaks down—in our politics and culture, our schools and our workplaces, our non-profits, our community centers, our synagogues, our mosques, our churches; as we now return from a war we have waged over a single house in Washington D.C. to our homes in neighborhoods across this country, give rest to our nation through the work of our hands.

We pray your faithfulness over our church:

We give you thanks for the adoption of Evonne’s new grandson after an eleven year wait. We ask for your care and protection over Mardi Weerstra as she recovers from surgery. And we grieve and we pray for Linda Jipping in the shock of her terminal cancer diagnosis, and for Jim and the family. Gracious Father, walk in the garden with Linda and Jim, give them the gift of your faithful presence on the road ahead, take their hands, precious Lord, and draw Linda close to yourself, the One for whom she was made.

We pray your faithfulness over our lives:

Where we have crossed every conceivable boundary, without even thinking, Father, forgive us. Do not let us go. Never leave us nor forsake us. Never again destroy. Make us, together, your church, into a holy and faithful people, the ark of salvation, preserving and carrying creation itself until that day when you make all things new.

In all of these things, Father, this is not the work of our hands, but the work of your hands: the work you have given to us; the work you have empowered by us; the work you will bring to completion through us. Give us rest, we pray, through the work of your hands.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God our Father. There is no shadow of turning with you.

And so we give you thanks, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Offering

In addition to our various funds (General, Building, Mission, Benevolence, Christian Education), online giving is also now available for today’s special offerings (River of Life, Christian Schools International) through the Give button below.

Doxology

We invite you to sing the Doxology with just the voices in your home. “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord” (Psalm 100:1).

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
praise him, all creatures here below;
praise him above, ye heavenly host;
praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Text: Thomas Ken, 1709, P.D.
Tune: (OLD HUNDREDTH): Louis Bourgeois, 1551, P.D. 

God’s Parting Words

Friends of God, go in the confidence of the God who speaks over you,
“I am your God. You are my people.”

He will never again destroy all life.
He himself has taken the curse.
He will bring you to himself, to his glorious presence,
without fault and with great joy.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from falling,
and to make you stand without blemish
in the presence of his glory with rejoicing,
to the only God our Savior,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
be glory, majesty, power, and authority,
before all time and now and forever.
Amen.”
—Jude 24-25