The text this week is Matthew 5:27-33, where Jesus raises the bar on faithfulness and righteousness in our sexuality. The worship theme is “Faithful God,” and the visual theme is “Bird Pairs,” because some birds form permanent mating pairs, a picture of the faithfulness God desires in our marriages.
We want to bring to your attention that Jesus, in this passage, talks very bluntly about sexual issues. In the sermon on Sunday we will try to aim the exposition and practical application of this text at adults, but children listening may have questions. Note that the worship and the Children’s corner will approach this theme positively as faithfulness.
Here is the link to the YouTube playlist: 210207 Heart Prep
Psalm 100:1–5 Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! 2Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! 3Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. 4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name! 5For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
1 Corinthians 10:12–13 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
Psalm 40:9–11 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; behold, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord. 10I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart; I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation; I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness from the great congregation. 11As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain your mercy from me; your steadfast love and your faithfulness will ever preserve me!
Invitation to Communion:
Ever Be
Closing Worship:
Psalm 62 (My Soul Finds Rest in God Alone)
Scripture for Meditation:
Matthew 19:3–9 (ESV) And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” 8He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
