First Presbyterian Church of Villa Rica

Order for the Worship of God
PALM SUNDAY, March 28th, 2021

At Church and Online
(Live Stream and Online Bulletin)

8:30 AM Worship Services Cancelled UFN (In Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall (Masks Required); and via Live Stream Online)
9:30 AM Gathering Grounds Cancelled UFN (In Fellowship Hall —coffee, donuts)

Nursery 10 AM to 12 PM
10 AM Sunday School for all ages
11 AM Worship Services (Masks required on campus until seated, or watch via Live Stream Online)

GATHERING OF GOD’S PEOPLE
“Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.” – Deuteronomy 4:10

PRELUDE
(As we prepare our hearts for worship let us quiet our hearts and our cell phones.)

Online Bulletin

Sermon:  “O Worship the King!”

Direct YouTube Link

Bulletin/Order of Worship

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS
CALL TO WORSHIP
INVOCATION

(All Scripture references are from the English Standard Version, ESV, unless otherwise noted.)

Worship through Hymn of Thanksgiving

296. “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!”

 Verse 1

All hail the pow’r of Jesus’ name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all;
bring forth the royal diadem,
and crown him Lord of all.

Verse 2

Crown him, ye martyrs of your God,
who from his altar call;
extol the Stem of Jesse’s rod,
and crown him Lord of all;
extol the Stem of Jesse’s rod,
and crown him Lord of all.

Verse 3

Ye seed of Israel’s chosen race,
ye ransomed of the fall,
hail him who saves you by his grace,
and crown him Lord of all;
hail him who saves you by his grace,
and crown him Lord of all.

Verse 4

Sinners, whose love can ne’er forget
the wormwood and the gall,
go, spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all;
go, spread your trophies at his feet,
and crown him Lord of all.

Verse 5

Let ev’ry kindred, ev’ry tribe,
on this terrestrial ball,
to him all majesty ascribe,
and crown him Lord of all;
to him all majesty ascribe,
and crown him Lord of all.

Verse 6

O that with yonder sacred throng
we at his feet may fall;
we’ll join the everlasting song,
and crown him Lord of all;
we’ll join the everlasting song,
and crown him Lord of all.

Worship Through Songs of Praise:

Blessed Be Your Name

Verse 1

Blessed be Your name
In the land that is plentiful
Where Your streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your name

Verse 2

Blessed be Your name
When I’m found in the desert place
Though I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your name

Pre-Chorus

Ev’ry blessing You pour out I’ll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in Lord
Still I will say

Chorus

Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your name
Blessed be the name of the Lord
Blessed be Your glorious name

Verse 3

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s all as it should be
Blessed be Your name

Verse 4

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

(Pre-Chorus and Chorus)

Bridge (2x)

You give and take away
You give and take away
My heart will choose to say
Lord blessed be Your name

(Chorus – 2x)

Oh Lord You’re Beautiful

Verse 1

Oh Lord You’re beautiful
Your face is all I seek
And when Your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me

Bridge

I want to take Your Word
And shine it all around
First help me just to live it Lord
And when I’m doing well
Help me to never seek a crown
For my reward is giving glory to You

Verse 2

Oh Lord please light the fire
That once burned bright and clear
Replace the lamp of my first love
That burns with holy fear

Bridge

I want to take Your Word
And shine it all around
First help me just to live it Lord
And when I’m doing well
Help me to never seek a crown
For my reward is giving glory to You

Verse 1

Oh Lord You’re beautiful
Your face is all I seek
And when Your eyes are on this child
Your grace abounds to me

 

Children Released to Children’s Church

Pastoral Prayer

Worship through Exposition of God’s Word: Rev. Thomas Myers

Sermon: “O Worship the King!”

457.  Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Verse 1

Come, thou fount of ev’ry 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 unchanging love.

Verse 2

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wand’ring from the fold of God:
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

Verse 3

O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be;
let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wand’ring heart to thee.
Prone to wander – Lord, I feel it –
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
seal it for thy courts above.

Benediction

Doxology: Hymn #731

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him, all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’ly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

Worship Through Tithes and Offerings

THIS WEEK AND UPCOMING EVENTS

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GATHERING GROUNDS (Cancelled UFA)

Please join us in the fellowship hall Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:00 am for coffee and donuts.

SMALL GROUPS TODAY:

Whittle/Dickinson Group will meet Sunday at 5 PM outside at the Dickinson’s home. Bring a dish to share. Email churchoffice@firstpresbyterianvr.org or Josh Whittle for the link.

Mitchell/Forlaw Group meeting at 5:30 pm at the church in the Fellowship Hall.

HYMN SINGING / CAROLING AFTER CHURCH

Join us after the service to sing hymns to Loretta Linville.  702 Magnolia Street, Villa Rica

GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE: 6:30 PM

Join us for the Good Friday service on April 1st at 6:30 pm. Nursery will be provided.

 

(Please Stand As Able)

This Week in Our Church Life

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Join us via Zoom on Sunday at 3:00 pm for Leadership training taught by Pastor Tom. Look for the Zoom link in your emails.

HOUSE OF PRAYER FOR ALL NATIONS

Will not be meeting this week. Will resume next week on April 7th.

WOMEN’S BIBLE STUDY
Wednesdays at 10am, PRECEPT BIBLE STUDY
A 16 week Precept Bible study on the book of Acts
began Wednesday, Feb 3 at 10 am.
Anyone interested may call Debby Morgan at
678-463-7368 for details on how to order a study book.

Other Resources

Kingdom Outreach:  See our Missions and Outreach Page

 What is Happening this Week, this Month?  Visit our This Week page.

A YEAR IN TABLETALK
You are invited to join us in reading through Tabletalk devotions for the year of 2021. January’s edition will be available by the offering box in the Sanctuary. You
can purchase a subscription by calling 1-800-435-4343 or by visiting the Table Talk website. You can also begin a free subscription through the website.

Continue to pray and encourage one another.1 Thessalonians 5:11
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

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Today’s Additional Resources

Westminster Shorter Catechism

Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Q. 2. What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him?
A. The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule
to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.

Q. 3. What do the Scriptures principally teach?
A. The Scriptures principally teach, what man is to believe concerning God, and what duty God requires
of man.

Q. 14. What is sin?
A. Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.

Westminster Confession of Faith CHAPTER XIII
Of Sanctification

I. They who are effectually called and regenerated, having a new heart and a new spirit created in them, are
further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and
Spirit dwelling in them: the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are
more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened, in all saving
graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.

II. This sanctification is throughout in the whole man, yet imperfect in this life: there abideth still some
remnants of corruption in every part, whence ariseth a continual and irreconcilable war, the flesh lusting against
the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.

III. I n which war, although the remaining corruption for a time may much prevail, yet, through the continual
supply of strength from the sanctifying Spirit of Christ, the regenerate part doth overcome: and so the saints
grow in grace, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Antinomianism

Antinomianism literally means “anti-lawism.” It denies or downplays the significance of God’s law in the life of the believer. It is the opposite of its twin heresy: legalism.

Antinomians acquire their distaste for the law in a number of ways. Some believe that they no longer are obligated to keep the moral law of God because Jesus has freed them from it. They insist that grace not only frees us from the curse of God’s law, but delivers us from any obligation to obey God’s law. Grace then becomes a license for disobedience.

The astounding thing is that people hold this view despite Paul’s vigorous teaching against it. Paul, more than any other New Testament writer, emphasized the differences between law and grace. He gloried in the new covenant. Nevertheless, he was most explicit in his condemnation of antinomianism. In Rom. 3:31 he writes, “Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.”

Martin Luther, in expressing the doctrine of justification by faith alone, was charged with antinomianism. Yet he affirmed with James that “faith without works is dead.” Luther contested with his student Johann Agricola on this issue. Agricola denied that the law had any purpose in the life of the believer. He even denied that the law served to prepare the sinner for grace. Luther responded to Agricola with his work Against the Antinomians in 1539. Agricola later recanted his antinomian teachings, but the issue remained.

Subsequent Lutheran theologians affirmed Luther’s view of the law. In the Formula of Concord (1577), the last of the classical Lutheran statements of faith, they outlined three uses for the law: (1) to reveal sin; (2) to establish general decency in the society at large; and (3) to provide a rule of life for those regenerated through faith in Christ.

Antinomianism’s primary error is confusing justification with sanctification. We are justified by faith alone, apart from works. However, all believers grow in faith by keeping God’s holy commands-not to gain God’s favor, but out of loving gratitude for the grace already bestowed on them through the work of Christ.

It is a serious error to assume that the Old Testament was a covenant of law and the New Testament, a covenant of grace. The Old Testament is a monumental testimony to God’s amazing grace toward His people. Likewise, the New Testament is literally filled with commandments. We are not saved by the law, but we demonstrate our love for Christ by obeying His commandments. “If you love Me,” Jesus said, “keep My commandments” (John 14:15).

We frequently hear the statement, “Christianity isn’t a lot of do’s and don’ts; it is not a list of rules.” There is some truth in this deduction, inasmuch as Christianity is far more than a mere list of rules. It is, at its center, a personal relationship with Christ Himself. Yet Christianity is also not less than rules. The New Testament clearly includes some do’s and don’ts. Christianity is not a religion that sanctions the idea that everyone has the right to do what is right in his own eyes. On the contrary, Christianity never gives anyone the “right” to do what is wrong.

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Special Announcement

Dear Believers of First Pres. Villa Rica,
Except for the 11AM service, all services are once again cancelled until further advised due to COVID.  Masks are required at the 11 AM service until seated.

 Sunday Schedule:  0830 and 0930 Break CANCELLED UFN 7th DUE TO COVID

0830-0930 Worship 1 (Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall, Masks Required, plus online live-stream)
0930-1000 Break / Fellowship
1000-1045 Sunday School
1045-1100 Break
1100-1200 Worship 2 (Sanctuary & Fellowship Hall, Mask Required until seated, plus online live-stream)

We thank the Lord for His faithfulness to us and for His hand of protection. Thank you for your support, encouragement and love for each other during these challenging times.

May we continue to labor together in love for the sake of the gospel and God’s kingdom,
The Session

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COVID PROTOCOLS:  In an effort to anticipate the needs as to the activities of the church in these times of uncertainty regarding COVID and the weather, there will be some changes upcoming in Worship location and virus protocols.  We have cooler weather approaching that will necessitate moving the Parking Lot Worship Service indoors, and we have some additional information for sanitation procedures for Worship Services, Sunday Schools, Nursery, and Children’s Church.  The Parking Lot Worship Service will move indoors to the Sanctuary and Fellowship Hall starting on Sunday, October 25^th.  This service will utilize strict COVID protocols to protect those with high concerns respecting the virus.  Masks and social distancing will be required at all times for this 8:30 worship.  See below for additional requirements and procedures. The updated schedule is, as follows, cancelled services in light grey:

8:30-9:30            Cancelled UFN: Worship One (Sanctuary & Fellowship Hall – Masks Required, also Live-streamed)

9:30-10:00          Cancelled UFN: Gathering Grounds: Break/Fellowship

10:00-10:45       Sunday School (Adult and Children) Nursery Provided

10:45-11:00       Break

11:00-12:00       Worship Two (Sanctuary & Fellowship Hall, plus live-stream, Mask Required until seated)

Children’s Church (Large Classroom)

  Nursery Provided

COVID Protocols for Worship One (8:30-9:30):

–Masks are mandatory until seated.  This applies to the Sanctuary and the Fellowship Hall.  Pastor Tom will not wear a mask while preaching at the pulpit.

–Social distancing will be maintained at all times.

–A sanitizing station with masks will be provided at the lower entrance, at the front door entrance, and the entrance into the Fellowship Hall.  There will also be spray sanitizer and hand sanitizer available at these locations.

–Anyone that does not have a mask will be given one.

–At the conclusion of this service the pews and cushions will be sprayed with sanitizer.  The Fellowship Hall will also be sanitized.

–The CDC recommends masks for children above the age of two years.

COVID Protocols for Break/Fellowship (9:30-10:00):

–Masks are optional and social distance is recommended.  For those that are wearing a mask, know that they are wearing it for a reason, and give them extra respect in regards to distance protocols.

COVID Protocols for Adult Sunday School (10:00-10:45):

-The adult SS will meet in the Fellowship Hall.

-Masks are optional.  Social distancing for seating is mandatory.

-Immediately following SS the tables and chairs will be sanitized.

COVID Protocols for Children’s Sunday School and Children’s Church:

-Masks are optional.

-Children’s masks and hand sanitizers will be available and use encouraged.

-Each child will have their own labeled supply box containing crayons, etc., that will be sanitized after each use.

-Tables and chairs will be cleaned between uses.

COVID Protocols for the Nursery:

-Nursery toys and surfaces will be sanitized with antibacterial wipes and spray and allowed to dry between services.

-At the end of the second service toys will be immersed in food-grade sanitizer and surfaces wiped and sprayed.

 COVID Protocols for Worship Two (11:00-12:00)

-Masks are required until seated.

-Social distancing is required for seating

-Give respect to those choosing to wear a mask.

-Ushers will not be required for seating or exit.

We pray for an end to this virus, but until then, we must make the best of a difficult situation.  We understand that all these different rules may be hard to keep up with, but we endeavor to provide as many options as possible so that most can attend a Worship Service.  The safety of the congregation is paramount, and the ability to have a choice on the level of protocols is necessary.  Those at the upper end of risk from this virus are encouraged to utilize the live stream option in the safety of your homes.  If you or your child have flu-like symptoms or a fever, please stay home.

We thank you for your prayers, for the willingness you have shown to be diligent in worship, and for your support of FPCVR during this unprecedented pandemic.

Prayerfully, The Session

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Westminster Confession of Faith in Modern English Chapter 11 – Justification

1. Those whom God effectually calls he also freely justifies. He does not pour righteousness into them but
pardons their sins and looks on them and accepts them as if they were righteous—not because of anything
worked in them or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone. He does not consider their faith itself, the act of
believing, as their righteousness or any other obedient response to the gospel on their part. Rather, he imputes to
them the obedience and judicial satisfaction earned by Christ. For their part, they receive and rest on Christ and
his righteousness by faith (and this faith is not their own but is itself a gift of God).
2. Faith, thus receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness, is the only means of justification. In the
person justified, however, it is always accompanied by all the other saving graces and is not a dead faith, but
works by love.
3. By his obedience and death Christ completely discharged the debt of all those who are so justified, and he
made the correct, real, and full satisfaction to his Father’s justice on their behalf. Since Christ was voluntarily
given by the Father for them, and since his obedience and satisfaction were accepted in their place and not for
anything in them, their justification is the result only of his free grace—so that both the perfect justice and the
rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.
6. The justification of believers under the Old Testament was in all these respects identical with the justification
of believers under the New Testament.
Shorter Catechism Q&A 33
Q: What is justification?
A: Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in
his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone.