Sunday, November 5, 2023
God’s Past Faithfulness is the Bridge to Our Future Hope
Sermon Notes
By Jeff Gilstrap
Scripture:
Numbers 13 and 14 (various verses)Theme:
We must learn to trust God for our future because God has been faithful in the past. This requires our reliance on following the winds of the Spirit to lead us.
Reflections:
This weekend, around 40 members of the St. Andrews congregation will be in Montreat, NC for our annual Family Retreat. As we gather together, we will be discussing “Sailboat Church” and the practice of allowing the Spirit to lead, both individually and as a church. “Sailboat Church” is the book our Zoom Group is studying this Fall, and is being used by Session as the foundation in the work they are engaged in to plan for the future of the church. In the spirit of following the winds of the Spirit, this Sunday’s meditation, will be based on the scripture from Numbers, but has not be pre-written.
Sunday’s service, which will be held at Montreat, will begin earlier than usual, at 9:30 AM but will be livestreamed as we usually do.
Music Notes
By Kenneth Jones
Reflections:
“God’s Faithfulness in the Past is the Bridge to Our Future Hope”. Our service will be abbreviated a bit from our normal order of service, as the worship service will be held at Montreat.
Opening Hymn: We begin with a wonderful hymn, a paraphrase of Psalm 90, which is a prefect match for the theme of the sermon: “Our God, Our Help from Ages Past, our hope for years to come”
Special Music: For special music, I will be singing another of the Scripture Lullabies, this one based on Psalm 91:2-4, “Underneath My Wings”.
Responsive Hymn: One of my very favorite hymns, never pass up an appropriate opportunity to sing it, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.
Sending Hymn: The test and music of “The Steadfast Love of the Lord” were written in 1974, the close of the refraing is a repeated “great is your faithfulness, O Lord”.