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