Sermon Series
Week 6
Oceans: 2 Acts 27:27-44
Preaching Commentary
For purposes of practicality and relatability, this series considers the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea “oceans.” The point is to relate our present-day affinity for the ocean, seashore, and beach to the ancients’ experiences with expansive bodies of salt water that take a long time to…
Sermon Resources
Key Quotes
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“Real courage is when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”
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The sight of any trouble strikes terror into the heart of those who do not have faith, but those who trust Him say, "Here comes my food!"
God's Keeping Power
Key Illustration
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Hardships Force our Roots to Go Deep So When Struggles Come, We Are Prepared
A. Parnell Bailey visited an orange grove where an irrigation pump had broken down. The season was unusually dry and some of the trees were beginning to die for lack of water. The man giving the tour then took Bailey to his own orchard where irrigation was used sparingly.
“These trees could go without rain for another 2 weeks,” he said. “You see, when they were young, I frequently kept water from them. This hardship caused them to send their roots deeper into the soil in search of moisture. Now mine are the deepest-rooted trees in the area. While others are being scorched by the sun, these are finding moisture at a greater depth.”
Our Daily Bread.
Liturgical Resources
Call to Worship
- Adapted from Isaiah 60:1-3View
Leader: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
All: For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples;
Leader: but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you.
All: And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
Adapted for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Prayer of Confession
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Gracious God, again we thank you for creating us in your image. Today, we are reminded that your image is not captured fully in the solitary individual but also and necessarily in human community. In some astounding way, our relationships with others reflect who you are as God.
As we seek to live faithfully as human beings created in your image, may we see you in the interplay of our relationships. May your reality shape our community, so that we might be more like you each day. Amen.
Assurance of Pardon
- Adapted from Isaiah 43:1-2View
Leader: But now thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel:
All: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”
Leader: “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.”
All: “When you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.”
Adapted for responsive liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Benediction
- Adapted from Lamentations 3:22-24 and Ephesians 2:11-22View
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is his faithfulness. ‘The Lord is our portion,’ says our souls, ‘therefore, we will hope in him.’ Go now with the assurance that He is our peace and through him the dividing wall of hostility has been dismantled. We are his new creation built upon Christ, the cornerstone and foundation, created in him for good works. Let us now walk in them. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Adapted with minor modifications for liturgical use.
Bible Translation: ESV English Standard Version Crossway PublishingScripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
