Worship Guide

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THE RESPONSIVE READING

If I speak in the ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST tongues of men and of angels, but have LEADER: Let us proclaim the amazing love of God in Christ! not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging CONGREGATION: For God so loved the world that He gave His one cymbal. and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the World to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Thanks be to our God! Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! This is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

THE FIRST NOWELL NOWELL

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

The Word The Word refers to the eternal divine Son who was “in the beginning with God” and who himself is God (John 1:1). From eternity past until he took on humanity, the Son of God existed in perfect love, joy, and harmony in the fellowship of the Trinity. Like the Father and the Spirit, he was spirit and had no material substance. But at the incarnation, the eternal Word entered into creation as human. He became a first-century Jew.

ADVENT 2017

at East Cooper Baptist

The Word Became Flesh So the eternal Son of God, without ceasing to be God, took on a fully human nature. This is what Christians have long called “the incarnation.” And what a magnificent truth and fuel for worship this is. Jesus didn’t just become man because he could. This was no circus stunt, just for show. He became man, in the world of the ancient creed, “for us and for our salvation.” The eternal Word became frail human flesh and blood to save us from our sin and to free us to marvel at and enjoy the unique union of divinity and humanity in his one spectacular person.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.

is love.

The incarnation refers literally to the in-fleshing of the eternal Son of God — Jesus “putting on our flesh and blood” and becoming fully human. The doctrine of the incarnation claims that the eternal second person of the Trinity took on humanity in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. A helpful way to remember the key aspects of the incarnation is the summary statement of John 1:14: “The Word became flesh.”

Flesh Flesh isn’t merely a reference to the human body but the entirety of what makes up humanity — body, mind, emotions, and will. Hebrews 2:17 and 4:15 teach that to save human beings Jesus had to be made like us “in every respect” except our sin. In the incarnation, everything proper to humanity was united to the Son of God. The Son of God did not only become like man; he actually became truly and fully human.

Love never ends.

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these

DAVID MATHIS

Became Became does not mean that he ceased to be God. In becoming man, he did not forsake his divine nature, as if that were even an option. Rather, he became man by taking on human nature in addition to his divine nature. It is essential to the incarnation — and very helpful throughout all theology — to recognize that divinity and humanity are not mutually exclusive. The Son of God didn’t have to pick between being God and being man. He could be both at the same time. The eternal Word became human.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

THE INCARNATION OF LOVE

The incarnation is not only the way in which Jesus became Immanuel — God with us — but it’s an eternal testimony that he and his Father are unswervingly for us.

THE OFFERTORY PRAYER THE OFFERTORY

STILL, STILL, STILL • ECBC ORCHESTRA • ABIGAIL DOLL, SOLO

CONGREGATIONAL GREETINGS LOTTIE MOON CHRISTMAS OFFERING VIDEO CHALLENGE

THE MORNING SERMON

CONRAD “BUSTER” BROWN, SENIOR PASTOR

PASTORAL PRAYER

361 Egypt Road Mt. Pleasant, SC 29464 843.856.3222

TIME OF RESPONSE

Equipping people to pursue Jesus Christ passionately as they impact the culture. eastcooperbaptist.com

JOY TO THE WORLD VERSE 2

May the God of hope fill you with all ljoy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13

WORSHIPGUIDE

THE WAY OF LOVE



ADVENT

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.”

The Church in Corporate Worship

DECEMBER 10, 2017

Advent at East Cooper

Please use the following prayer to prepare your hearts for worship:

9:00 and 10:45 am Sanctuary Services

O GOD OF LOVE, In this Advent season -- help us not to lose our wonder at the LOVE that advent delivers.

The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before. What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you. And you begin to grasp what it was you missed, like Moses in the cleft of the rock, watching God’s [back] fade in the distance.

For Wonder is at the root of praise.

So stay. Sit. Linger. Tarry. Ponder. Wait. Behold. Wonder. There will be time enough for running. For rushing. For worrying. For pushing. For now, stay. Wait. Something is on the horizon.

Wonder is at the heart of Christmas, and not for one day only but for each waking day. At the heart of Christ’s incarnation is the truth that God makes extraordinary things happen in ordinary places, that heaven and earth holy and earthly God and human are intertwined. Don’t let us lose our wonder. Let us receive Your love. Amen.

LOVE IS ON THE WAY

REFLECTION

THOUGHTS FOR WORSHIP PREPARATION



Some may say it [the Incarnation] is not true, but no one can say it is trivial. If it is true, it is the greatest good news that ever came to human beings on this planet. Those who heard it for the first time called it news; more than that, good news…. Human existence and the world itself are not meaningless happenings but the expression of purpose, of intentionality, and, above all, of intelligibility and love, which have been made known in Jesus Christ. -- John Leith Our love for God, expressed through obedience to Him, is to be a response to His love, not a means of trying to earn it. Both our love for others and our love for God are prompted by His love for us. -- Jerry Bridges Our lives are so chaotic because in our arrogance we dwell on how our plans have been skewed. God had plans too. -- Timothy J. Keller The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. -- Isaiah 7:14 Thou didst love me before I loved thee, an enemy, a sinner, a loathsome worm. Thou dost love me as a son, and weep over me as over Jerusalem. Love brought thee from heaven to earth, from earth to the cross, from the cross to the grave. Love caused thee to be weary, hungry, tempted, scorned, scourged, buffeted, spat upon, crucified, and pierced. Love led thee to bow thy head in death. My salvation is the point where perfect created love and the most perfect uncreated love meet together; For thou dost welcome me, like Joseph and his brothers, loving and sorrowing, but loving and rejoicing. Thy love is not intermittent, cold, changeable; it does not cease or abate for all my enmity. -- The Valley of Vision

The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent.

ADVENT PRELUDE

ELENA CRUDGE, ORGANIST

MORNING WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS VIDEO

RISE SHINE, YOU PEOPLE ADVENT HYMN

Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live “between the times” and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,” it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

JESUS JOY OF HIGHEST HEAVEN WAM CHILDREN’S CHOIR

Jesus, joy of the highest heaven, Born as a little baby Under a wondrous star. Like us, crying he takes His first breath Held by His mother, helpless Close to her beating heart. Jesus, laid in a lowly manger, Facing a world of dangers, Come to turn me a stranger Into a child of God. Jesus, King of the highest heaven Learning to take His first steps, That He might bring us life. Like us, knowing our smiles and sorrows, He showed the way to follow, A way that is true and right. Jesus, take away every darkness, Steady my simple footsteps That I might in your goodness Live as a child of God.”

LOVE DIVINE About a trillion centuries Before the world was made, and seas of deep and empty space were not Yet there to make an endless spot For nothingness, nor Gabriel, nor Lucifer, nor flames of hell, Nor beasts and elders round the throne, But only God the Lord alone— No element of any kind, Nor measurement, but only Mind— Ages before the Lord employed His sovereign power to make a void Beside the vastness of his will, When there was only God to fill The mind of God with joy and He was Life, and absolutely free... The Father fixed his gaze on me, Foreknew my soul that I should be At first ashamed before his face, And then a vessel for his grace; And in the Holy Trinity Engaged a glad conspiracy Of love that all the energy Of God should be employed to see That I, when all his work is done, Would bear the image of his Son. --John Piper

“My Lord, I did not choose You, For that could never be; My heart would still refuse You, Had You not chosen me. My heart knows none above You; For Your rich grace I thirst. I know that if I love You, You must have loved me first.” -- Josiah Conder

ARISE, YOUR LIGHT HAS COME HYFRYDOL

LOVE DIVINE, ALL LOVES’ EXCELLING BEECHER