Call to worship:
1 Clap your hands, all peoples!
Shout to God with loud songs of joy!
2 For the Lord, the Most High, is to be feared,
a great king over all the earth.
3 He subdued peoples under us,
and nations under our feet.
4 He chose our heritage for us,
the pride of Jacob whom he loves. Selah5 God has gone up with a shout,
the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.Psalm 47:1-5
Gathering Video
Questions for reflection:
Why does Paul utilize the law, prophets, and writings?
How has God used waiting in your life in the past?
In what ways is waiting “widening” your life and heart today?
Corporate Prayer:
Our Father in heaven,
We are grateful for your plan and provision. It is only by Jesus we are saved and sustained. We ask for the empowering of Your Spirit to ground us in truth, send us in love, and keep us aligned with your heart in the midst of the world.
In the name of Jesus we pray, Amen.
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Notes//Quotes//Slides:
Galatians 4:21-31 - Faith C. Reading
Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. - Muhammad Ali
At certain key points, Paul uses the Jewish technique of alluding to each section of the Hebrew Scriptures—Torah, Prophets, and Writings, though not necessarily in that order. I propose that he does this in 4:21–5:1 with an allusion to Psalm 87 in verse 26 alongside his references to Genesis and to Isaiah 54. Paul is bringing this polemical letter to a climax, doing so appropriately and ironically by constructing a paragraph with a rich scriptural backbone. He is appealing to Torah against those who want to impose Torah. - NT Wright
Hagar//Sarah Graphic
The burden of his message is clear. The great reversal envisaged by Isaiah—from barrenness to fruitfulness, from despair to joy, from desolation to blessing—can only be accomplished by the unilateral intervention of God himself. How dare anyone say to a person in such dire straits as the woman in this example that she should sing, rejoice, and shout for joy! The words ring hollow until we realize that it was the Lord himself who spoke thus to her. How could she not be afraid or fear disgrace when there was so much against her? Later in the same chapter (Isa 54:5) God himself provided the answer: “For your Maker is your husband—the Lord Almighty is his name—the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer; he is called the God of all the earth.” Again, Paul was pointing to God’s gracious sovereignty and infinite love that is the foundation of our justification, freedom, and hope. - Timothy George
If you worship money and things — if they are where you tap real meaning in life — then you will never have enough. Never feel you have enough. It’s the truth. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On one level, we all know this stuff already — it’s been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily consciousness. Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on. David Foster Wallace
In vain we search the heavens high above, The God of love is kneeling at our feet. Though we betray him, though it is the night, He meets us here and loves us into light. - Malcom Guite
Waiting is a herculean widening of everything within you into a canyon—that can fill with a rising ocean of hope. And all this waiting isn’t destroying us — the waiting is growing us. Waiting isn’t loss—it’s enlarging. The longer the heart waits, the larger the heart expands to hold the largeness of the abundant life. The waiting is widening us—so Hope is never running out— but more hope in Christ is running in. Waiting is the sacrament of the tender surrender, the art of a soul growing large. - Ann Voskamp