8/30 Worship Service

Call To Worship

(Scripture to set a tone for worshipping the Lord)

Worship In Song

Come Thou Fount

Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it
Mount of God’s redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I’ve come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be
Let Thy grace, Lord, like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above
Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Grace Alone

I was an orphan lost at the fall
Running away when I’d hear your call
But Father, you worked your will

I had no righteousness of my own
I had no right to draw near your throne
But Father, you loved me still

And in love before you laid the world’s foundation
You predestined to adopt me as your own
You have raised me so high above my station
I’m a child of God by grace and grace alone

You left your home to seek out the lost
You knew the great and terrible cost
But Jesus, your face was set

I worked my fingers down to the bone
Nothing I did could ever atone
But Jesus, you paid my debt

By your blood I have redemption and salvation
Lord, you died that I might reap what you have sown
And you rose that I might be a new creation
I am born again by grace and grace alone

I was in darkness all of my life
I never knew the day from the night
But Spirit, you made me see

I swore I knew the way on my own
Head full of rocks, a heart made of stone
But Spirit, you moved in me

At your touch my sleeping spirit was awakened
On my darkened heart the light of Christ has shone
Called into a kingdom that cannot be shaken
Heaven’s citizen by grace and grace alone

So I’ll stand in faith by grace and grace alone
I will run the race by grace and grace alone

Before The Throne Of God Above

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea
A great High Priest whose name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me
My name is graven on His hands
My name is written on His heart
I know that while in heav’n He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart
No tongue can bid me thence depart

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free
For God the Just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me
To look on Him and pardon me

(CHORUS)
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Praise the one risen son of God

Behold Him there, the risen Lamb
My perfect, spotless Righteousness
The great unchangeable I AM
The King of glory and of grace
One with Himself, I cannot die
My soul is purchased by His blood
My life is hid with Christ on high
With Christ my Savior and my God
With Christ my Savior and my God

The Reading Of God’s Word

John 3:1-21 (Paul Greaves)

There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. ²This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.”
³Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
⁴“How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?”
⁵Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ⁶Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. ⁸The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
⁹“How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus.
¹⁰“Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. ¹¹“Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. ¹²If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven —the Son of Man.
¹⁴“Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, ¹⁵so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. ¹⁹This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”

The Proclamation Of God’s Word

The Good, The Bad, & The Born Again (Sean Nolan)

Response: The Lord’s Supper

(All baptized Christians who are trusting in Jesus for salvation are welcome to join us for communion. Please hold onto your bread and juice until instructed to partake of this ordinance together. Afterwards, please dispose of the waste in the bucket at that back table.)

Songs Of Response

My One Comfort (It Is Finished)

My one comfort both in life and death,
Is that I am not my own
I was bought with blood and confess,
I belong to You alone

(CHORUS)
By the Father’s good decree
Jesus, You’ve delivered me
By Your Spirit set me free
To follow You

There’s no deed that can redeem us
There’s no rite or magic word
Only by the work of Jesus
Can salvation be secured

There’s no sacrifice to offer
There’s no penance to complete
Freely drink of living water
Without money come and feast

All The Poor And Powerless

All the poor and powerless
And all the lost and lonely
And all the thieves will come confess
And know that You are holy
And know that You are holy

And all will sing out Hallelujah
And we will cry out Hallelujah

All the hearts who are content
And all who feel unworthy
And all who hurt with nothing left
Will know that You are holy

And all will sing out Hallelujah
And we will cry out Hallelujah (x2)

Shout it
Go on and scream it from the mountains
Go on and tell it to the masses
That He is God (x3)

All the poor and powerless
And all the lost and lonely
And all the thieves will come confess
And know that You are holy
And know that You are holy

Worship Through Giving:

Those who call Engage home are encouraged to worship through giving. In order to ensure minimal contact, those giving by cash or check are encouraged to drop in the bucket on the back table (not the garbage bucket) discreetly as they depart. To read more about what we believe about giving or to submit an offering online click HERE.
(also available on Venmo: @EngageAlbany)

Benediction

(A word of closing blessing from Holy Scripture)

“(And) We all, with unveiled faces, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
-2 Corinthians 3:18