Worship Focus 

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 Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church May 20, 2012
 
Scripture Passages
 
 
 Questions For Reflection

 

Where are you from and what does that say about who you are?

 

What do you think it means to be "from the world"?

 

How does one who is from God live differently in the world?

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Sermon Series

The Prepositions of Our Faith

 

Sunday's Message

From: A New Starting Point

The Rev. Matt Gough, preaching

Friends,
©Cathy Grinder on CreationSwap
©Cathy Grinder on CreationSwap
  
This Sunday evening we will experience a solar eclipse. I'm sure that you will take time to stop and observe this phenomenon, but be careful to use proper viewing tools before looking at the sun. There are lots of things that can get in the way of our need to stop and worship the God who gives us life. We easily allow our spiritual lives to be eclipsed by our busy schedules. I encourage you to take time this Sunday to join us in worship as we focus on who we have come from and to whom we belong. 
 

Hope to see you soon!

Matt


Theme for the Day
  
©Tonya Christner on CreationSwap
©Tonya Christner on CreationSwap

The preposition from is a word that links us to our origins. So much of who we are is shaped by the places and the people we came from. These beginnings have a powerful hold on who we are, how we think, and how we regard others. Our histories, personal and cooperate, can lead us to internal and external conflicts and disconnection. The Gospel of Jesus Christ boldly claims to rewrite our origins to a new shared beginning. In this new life, the past has no hold on us and we are being reshaped as people with an eternal homeland. While in this world, we can live as people who are from God!

Scripture passages
  

John 17:6-19

 

"I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

 

And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

 

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

 

Psalm 107:1-9

 

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

 

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

 

Some wandered in desert wastes, finding no way to an inhabited town; hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted within them.

 

Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress; he led them by a straight way, until they reached an inhabited town.

 

Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

 

For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.