170402SundayReport

with lively faith we may labor abundantly to make known to all men thy blessed gift of
eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
O
LORD our heavenly Father, whose blessed Son came not to be ministered unto, but
to minister; We beseech thee to bless all who, following in his steps, give themselves
to the service of their fellow men. Endue them with wisdom, patience, and courage, that
they may strengthen the weak and raise up those who fall; and, being inspired by thy
love, may worthily minister in thy Name to the suffering, the friendless, and the needy;
for the sake of him who laid down his life for us, the same thy Son, our Savior, Jesus
Christ. Amen.
D
IRECT us, O Lord, in all our doings, with thy most gracious favor, and further us
with thy continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in thee,
we may glorify thy holy Name, and finally, by thy mercy, obtain everlasting life; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
T
HE Lord bless us, and keep us. The Lord make his face to shine upon us, and be
gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us, and give us peace, both
now and evermore. Amen.
✟
Rev Bryan Dabney of Saint John’s Sunday Sermon
We are fortunate to have Bryan’s Sunday Sermon. If you want people to come to The
Truth, you have to speak the truth, espouse the truth and live
the truth. This is really a good piece and I commend it to your
careful reading.
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
In today’s Gospel we find our Lord encouraging those about
him to view his works as being from the Father. Sadly, many in
the crowd refused to accept his works and even accused him of
being an agent of evil. But the thing which drove them to
derisive anger was his utterance of the following five words:
before Abraham was I am. These five words left those present
with but two choices. Either they would fall down and worship him as the Messiah, or
they would take up stones to kill him as a blasphemer. They chose the latter and in doing
so we can see the hand of evil in their intentions. For though what the Bible presents us
is appalling, it should not be at all surprising that Satan sought to use Christ’s earthly
brethren to kill him under the rubric of the Law of Moses.
Even today, the unregenerated will seek to silence all who are born again of the Holy
Ghost in the vain hope of rendering their witness of no effect. A favorite tactic of theirs
has been to heckle the faithful by calling them names such as “Fundamentalists” or
“Bible-thumpers.” They may influence church boards and schools to restrict the words
and works of believers in public venues via the use of political correctness. In some parts
of the world, believers have been attacked both verbally and physically for publicly
proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ. Their houses of worship have suffered degradation
and even destruction at the hands of those who are the Devil’s charges. The
unregenerated may even attempt to use the tactics of peaceful co-existence, or even
compromise to diminish the actions of true and faithful Christians in society, school and
the world of work and play. And it is always by degrees, that is, “You can speak here at
this time, just not at all times”, or “We don’t want you to proclaim this teaching or that
from the Bible in public as it may be offensive to some.”
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