SONG SERVICE

Baxter T. Exum (#1678)
Four Lakes Church of Christ
Madison, Wisconsin
January 29, 2023

It is good to be together this morning! If you are visiting with us today (either here in person or online), we are glad to have you with us, and we would invite you to fill out an online visitor card by using the QR code on the front of the bulletin or by going to our website at fourlakescoc.org/visitor. And if you are joining us on YouTube, we would invite you to subscribe to our YouTube channel.

We are here this morning not to be entertained, not to put on a show of some kind, but we are here to worship God, and part of that is preaching the good news that Jesus loves us and gave himself up for us on the cross. We obey this good news by believing the message, by turning away from sin, by publicly confessing that Jesus is our King, the Son of God, and by submitting to his command to be baptized. And we are sharing one example today. This one comes to us from the Lord’s church in Iowa Park, Texas. They posted this week, and they start by quoting Acts 22:16, where Ananias says to Saul, “And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.” And then they say, “Welcome to the brotherhood Jason.” This is all we know, but we rejoice with Jason and our Christian family down in Texas this morning!

Now, I realize we often focus on what we need to do (and for good reason), but this morning we are taking some time to focus on the fact that Jesus has saved us! Yes, we must obey the gospel as God has commanded in his word, but without Jesus there would be no gospel to obey. And so, today, we are dedicating our time together this morning to recognizing that Jesus is our Savior. We have a preview up here, and we’ll keep this on the wall as we progress through it, but this morning we’ll be noting that Jesus was “Born to Save,” that is, he came to this earth for the purpose of saving us. In fact, the name “Jesus” means “the Lord is Salvation.” We will then note that we are “Saved By His Blood.” In other words, he died. And his death was on purpose, his death was planned, he took our place on the cross. This prepares us to partake of the Lord’s Supper, a memorial Jesus instituted on the night before he died, with the bread representing his body and the fruit of the vine representing his blood, the blood of the covenant that was poured out for the forgiveness of sins. Following the Lord’s Supper, we’ll look at the fact that we have been “Saved to Serve.” That is, we have been saved, not just to keep us from hell, not just to send us to heaven, but we have been saved to make a difference right here, right now. The fact that we are saved should mean something to those around us. And then we will wrap it up this morning by reminding each other that as our Savior, Jesus is “Worthy of Praise.”

To start our song and scripture service this morning, I’d like to share Paul’s message to the church in Philippi Philippians 3:20-21, where he gives a reminder,

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

Let’s pray together:

Our Father in Heaven,

You are the one and only great and awesome God, creator of heaven and earth. This morning we confess that we have sinned, that we have fallen short of your glory. Our sins have separated us from you. But we are thankful that you have made a way for us to come back. Thank you, Father, for Jesus, our Savior. He rescued us from the darkness of sin. He made us a part of your eternal kingdom, the church. Thank you, Father, for giving us citizenship in heaven. We now eagerly await meeting you face to face.

We come to you through Jesus, our Savior and King. AMEN.

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