Grounded and Growing—Bearing Fruit Week 6 Faithfulness

This is part of the worship series, 
"Grounded and Growing—Bearing Fruit”

Series Introduction | Ascension Sunday | Pentecost
Love | Joy | Peace | Patience | Generosity & Kindness | 
Faithfulness | Gentleness | Self-Control | Communion Liturgy

Also in this year-long Grounded and Growing series: 
Advent and Christmas | Epiphany | Lent and Easter

Key Theme: Faithfulness is loyal reliability and trustworthiness grounded in God’s unwavering faith.

Faithfulness can be defined as steadfastness, reliability and dependability. Throughout scripture, we find proclamations of God’s faithfulness to God’s people, as seen in Psalm 111. God has been faithful, time and time again, fulfilling promises, rescuing people, displaying might. Therefore, says the psalmist, we can trust God, and can trust that God’s precepts—God’s laws for right living—are designed for our good and flourishing. 

Rooted in this trust, we can then be faithful in our response to God. Jesus models this faithfulness in the very beginning of his ministry, when he’s led into the wilderness to be tempted. Three times Satan tempts Jesus to turn his back on God, to live as though he did not trust that his Father was faithful. Satan tries to get Jesus to take a short cut to alleviate his hunger, to test God’s love, and, finally, to take a path to glory and power that would bypass the cross. Each time, Jesus responds with a faithfulness rooted in trust and rooted in Scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy, Jesus stays true to God’s precepts, for he trusts that God’s precepts are good. 

Jesus is faithful even when he knows such faithfulness will lead him down a road of suffering. Indeed, even while he is faithful in the wilderness, he is hungry and alone during his temptations. So too, as we read the accounts of faithfulness told in Hebrews 11, we see in the background of each person’s story the suffering, uncertainty, and fear that would have made faithlessness all too understandable. Who would fault Moses for continuing a life of ease and comfort in Pharoah’s house? Who would blame Abraham for hiding Isaac instead of bringing him to the altar?

Instead, Moses and Abraham and Joseph and Jacob and Rahab lived faithful lives in response to God’s faithfulness. Trusting in the faithfulness of God, they heeded God’s commands and obeyed God’s precepts, staying true when it would have been easier to turn away. They did so not of their own strength, but through the power of God. We, rooted in Christ and empowered by the same Spirit that was with Christ in the wilderness, are called to do the same.

Service Outline

Call to Worship

Opening Song

“How Firm a Foundation” ^{Keen & Keith}

Greeting

We gather in this place, trusting that God
knows what our hearts carry
from the week before. 
And God knows what lies ahead, 
what worries are on our hearts, 
what anxieties we might carry as we think about
the coming week. 

To each of us, God’s promise is as sure as it was to
his people centuries ago, when he spoke through the prophet Isaiah:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, 
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
The flames will not set you ablaze.
for I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
—Isaiah 43:1–3 ^NIV

Grace to you, and peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ, our firm foundation. 
Amen. 

Songs of Praise

“Cornerstone” ^{Mote et al.}

“Ancient of Days” ^{Robinson et al}

Call to Confession

Jesus is our cornerstone; the king above all kings, the one on whom we can rely. Like us, he journeyed through the wilderness, tried and tempted. But Jesus, fully divine, did what we could not, and was perfectly faithful to God’s laws. Because of Jesus’ faithfulness, we can live in the certainty of God’s presence to us in the wilderness, and the assurance of God’s forgiveness when we go astray. In hope and trust, let us confess our sins to God. 

Prayer of Confession

Jesus,
when we read the story of your temptation in the wilderness,
we read ourselves into the story all too easily.
We know what it is to be tempted. 
But unlike you, we succumb to our temptations time and time again.
So we confess that we have tried to take shortcuts to bypass suffering,
rather than stay faithful to the road you lead us on.
We confess that we want God to serve us, not the other way around.
We confess that we want to rule, to have power and wealth,
even at the expense of others.  

Jesus, you endured suffering even to the point of the cross,
not turning away, but staying true to your mission.
By your faithfulness, we have been set free.
Forgive our faithlessness, and help us to 
live in obedience and faith.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, O God,
by the power of the Spirit that was with Jesus in the wilderness.
Help us to trust in you.
Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 
—Colossians 2:13–14 ^NIV

Be at peace, trusting in the forgiveness of your sins.

Song of Thanksgiving

“Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)” ^{Newton, Tomlin}

Call to Holy Living

Having been assured of our forgiveness, 
let us dedicate our lives to holy living:

Hear these words of God: 

“I am the Lord your God.
You shall have no other gods before me.
You shall not make for yourself an idol,
     whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above,
     or that is on the earth beneath,
     or that is in the water under the earth.
You shall not bow down to them or worship them.
You shall not make wrongful use
     of the name of the Lord your God.
Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy.
Honor your father and your mother.
You shall not murder.
You shall not commit adultery. 
You shall not steal.
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house;
     you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife,
     or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
—from Exodus 20:1–17 ^NRSV

In gratitude for God’s grace,
and by the power of the Holy Spirit,
we will live according to God’s laws,
seeking to be more like Christ in all we do and say.

Passing of the Peace

Prayer for Illumination

“Ancient Words” ^DeShazo

Scripture Reading

First Reading: Matthew 4:1–11
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:17–29

Sermon

“By Faith”

Song of Response

“By Faith” - Getty

Breath Prayer

[The leader invites the Spirit's presence to fill our lives (as we breathe in) so that our lives might bear good fruit (as we breathe out). This prayer can be repeated a few times.] 

Breathe In: “Holy Spirit, fill us with your presence”

Breathe Out: “that we might respond to God in faithfulness.”

Prayers of the People

Offering, Offertory Prayer

Song of Dedication

“Ancient of Days” ^{Robinson et al}

Benediction

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father,
who loved us and by his grace
gave us eternal encouragement and good hope,
encourage your hearts and strengthen you
in every good deed and word.
—2 Thessalonians 2:16–17 ^NIV

Doxology

“To God Be the Glory” ^Crouch