Stonybank Community Church with Pastor James Carroll

A day that affects each of us in some way ...as goes the home so goes the nation.  The best way to teach our children about the Lord is from generation to generation.  Any church is just one generation away from extinction.  We need virtuous women with strength of character.

The story of Dinah is a made for television drama of a young girl who longed for the affection of her father and the story is complete with love, sex, murder, and greed.  Jacob who did not know the love of his own father himself evidently does not know how to love his own children and so once again we have illustrated for us the importance of father’s in the home.  However, someone else'...

Eloise share some of the background of this hymn before playing for our offertory

Isaac loved Esau but Rebekah loved Jacob and the story of these twins plays out like a modern mystery when the home is divided.  What Rebekah hoped to save she lost and what Jacob hoped to secure he failed.  But in the end Jacob comes home reminding us that God does not bless those who deserve it but who believe.  

played by the bell choir

Every religion of the world has come from man’s best effort at fulfilling their own heart’s desire and making peace on earth but as with Abraham it only compounds the problem. There will never be peace on earth, peace in your heart, peace in your family or peace with God apart from the faith of Abraham in Jehovahjireh, the Lord who sees our need and has provided proof of his love of toward us, bec...

Eloise telling the story joined by Joanne on the flute

Martin Luther said, our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.  Every seed placed in the ground is an illustration of the resurrection.  The hope of Heaven is a very real place of physical beauty and we will be very much alive in glorified bodies.

Hymn story by Eloise with Everett on the saxophone

The first half of the chapter is prayer in the suffering Christ (vv.1-21). This second half of the chapter is praise in the glorified Christ (vv.22-31).  If prayer does not turn our heart toward the will of God, praise will never follow.  This Psalm was perhaps quoted in its entirety from the cross, which concludes.

Compiled and shared by Jean Loggia.

Psalm 22 is called “The Psalm of the Cross” because it is the single most comprehensive description of crucifixion in all of scripture·  In this "forgotten I Am" Ps.22:6 says I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.  You may not like singing about yourself as a worm but that is the image necessary for Christ to identify himself with us.  Christ did not...

The story told by Eloise who played and sung by Joe C. and Mitch G.

"The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious" wrote Albert Einstein.  Be careful about trying to reduce everything about God to the known.  The mysterious, wondrous, secret things belong to God (Deut.29:29).  

Eloise and Joanne playing

Story of the hymn and offertory with Eloise on the piano.

O LORD, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.  The second most important question in all of scripture, what is man? Ps.8:4  Made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor and made to have dominion.  "Nowhere is man's dignity asserted more clearly and boldly than in this passage" (Leupold)  Yet that is man before sin and this then is a Messiani...

Prayer gains the battle but praise the secures the victory.  The enemy is camped just outside the door but we must not let them in the door. 

Parallels Psalm 148.  Eloise on piano and Joanne on flute.

The rage of v.1 is not just anger but is a noisy display of opposition. In this increasing noisy world it is harder and harder to find any quiet.  And with all the rage how do we know to whom we should listen.  There is a conspiracy and the devil is its leader.

Hymn story and offertory with Eloise

What a shame that youth is wasted on the young.  "I hope the river of my will go on flowing fully... I don't want to end in a swamp."  The importance of laying a good foundation in your youth for the circumstances of life that are sure to come in our later years.  Live each day as it comes and you are sure to finish well.

Of all other things, we should be known for our love.  However, this virtue runs contrary to the world and our own human nature. 

Even before Covid, depression and suicide have been on the rise among young adults. The psalmist asks, Where is God?  When God seems silent remember this one principle, stop looking for reasons and start looking for promises.  As W. Wiersbe famously said, "as God’s children we live on promises not explanations."

A psalm of penitence for teaching lessons of forgiveness.  David suffered in silence for a year before coming clean with God.  Forgiveness is important but this psalm provides an important next step and guidance for cleansing from the iniquity of our sin.