SHELTER-IN-PLACE WORSHIP GUIDE

SUNDAY, JUNE 14, 2020

We are glad that you have come to worship with us today.  May your week be filled with joy and love.

The Call to Worship and Invocation

Give unto the LORD the Glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.  This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

May the blessing of God Almighty flow exceedingly upon His people everywhere.   

Morning Song – Come on in This House

Scripture Reading (Genesis 9:8-15) 

8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him:

9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you

10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:

13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds,

15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.

Gloria Patri 

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen, Amen.

Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried;

The third day he rose from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of  God the Father Almighty, from thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic* Church, the Communion of Saints, the Forgiveness of Sins, the Resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.  Amen.

Altar Call/Pastoral Prayer – Prayer Will Fix It

We are praying for you,

Rev. Keith Johnson, Octavian Rodriquez, Angelikka Carter, James Spaulding, Rev. and Mrs. Braxton, Dwaine Giggans,

Johnie Mae Williams, Christine Ferguson, Rev. Michael Henderson, Rev. Veronica Buckner,  Brother Daniel, Presiding Elder Rogers

Most Gracious Father,

A contrite spirit approaches Your throne of grace.   We thank acknowledge our sins against You and pray Your forgiveness.  We love You Lord and are grateful for Your presence in our lives.  As we continue to face this travesty of disease in our land, we pray that you will hear our prayer, O Lord.  Incline Thine ear to us and grant us Thy peace.  Please calm our fears and doubts.

Father, we pray for our families and friends and for all those who are sick and suffering through the ongoing Coronavirus.  We know that you are a physician and that you can deliver us, and we claim the victory in your precious Name. 

Please bless First AME Zion Church, our members, and leaders as they stand as a witness for You in this time when some unbelievers see no hope. We pray special blessings for our Presiding Elder as he transitions into leadership of the Bay Cities District. Thank You, Lord for all that You have done in our lives and all that You will do.  In Jesus Name we pray.  Amen.

Song of Praise - Stand by Me

Tithes and Offerings

"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."  2nd Chronicles 9:7

Visit our Gift section on the Gift tab.  You may give via credit cards, PayPal Givelify.com (Download Givelify to your Smartphone).  If you prefer,  mail your tithes and offerings to First AMEZ Church, 95 S. 20th Street, San Jose CA 95116

Givelify.com (Download Givelify to your Smartphone) or mail your tithes and offerings to First AMEZ Church, 95 S. 20th Street, San Jose CA 95116

Sermonic Scripture Reading - Job 13:15

Though  He slay me, yet will I trust Him.

Song of Preparation - I Will Trust In the Lord

Sermon - Pastor Rogers

I Will Trust  In the Lord

This short scripture is perhaps one of the most well known throughout the bible.  It consists of only nine words — Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. In order to get the full meaning of these words, we must deal primarily with the word "trust."

Now the word trust means to "believe" or to place in the care of another -- to entrust something to someone. Trust also means to give over to. People often say, "I trust so-and-so with my life."  Usually, trust is associated with a particular situation or circumstance. I trust the bank to have my money in my account after I deposit it there. But, at any time, I can withdraw my money and take it out from under the bank's trust.

I trust my barber to cut my hair, but if he cuts it wrong two or three times, then I stop trusting him and go to another barber.

In our human experience, this is how we view trust. We only trust in something when it is convenient and beneficial to us! But here in this scripture, Job didn't put any constraints and restraints on his trust.

• He didn't say -- I will trust him only when I'm in trouble.

• Job didn't qualify his trust by saying, "I will trust him when I want or need something."

Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him. " So, what Job is saying in these nine words is “Without hesitation — without forethought — without any doubt, I will trust Him at all times.”

You can't make me change my mind — you can't turn me away from him — you can't make me doubt him -- I will trust Him at all costs.  No matter what you think or say, no matter what comes my way, I will

trust in the Lord, 'til I die.

I know that this may sound strange to some of you because you don't trust yourself or anybody. And that is probably why the Lord put it so strongly on my heart to talk about "TRUST." In fact, I want to share with you today the many benefits of trusting God.

In Genesis Chapter 22, we find the story of Abraham and Isaac. Here in this text, Abraham was up on the mountain top with his son, Isaac. Isaac was the son of Abraham's beloved Sarah and Abraham loved Isaac dearly.

One day, God spoke to Abraham and told him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to him on the altar. Now, I can just imagine that Abraham was reluctant to offer his son for a sacrifice. But, here we find that Abraham was obedient. So, Abraham tie dup his son and laid him on the altar. He took his knife and looked up toward heaven as he started to sacrifice his son's life.

But God saw Abraham's obedience and intervened by having a ram in the bush and the child's life was spared. All of this happened because (1) Abraham obeyed God, and (2) because Abraham always trusted God.

Listen, Church, when you trust God, He always has a ram in the bush, and he always comes through for you! He never fails.

You might consider offering your son as a sacrifice to God a drastic step. But, since God has not asked anyone in this congregation to offer their loved one, let's look at an example of what we do have to offer.

Most of us have some kind of income — whether it is fixed or fluid! We do have an income and with that income, we also have an obligation to our creditors to pay our bills. That is we are bound by contract to pay our rent, mortgages, car notes, loan payments, and other such financial responsibilities.

And, then we have our creature comforts that we must take care of.

• The barber shop, the beauty shop, the nail shop.

• The clothing store, the liquor store, the 99 Cents store. 

And, then we have our "necessities" of life.

• Our child care, elder care, and health care.

And, now we come to church. Notice that I didn't include this in our list of obligations, creature comforts or necessities. I didn't include it purposely, because most Christians see their relationship with God as a one-way street. He makes all of the sacrifices, and they reap all of the benefits.

Many people just come to church and give God the change that is left from their income. They don't believe tithing is an obligation or a necessity. It is obvious that they trust in SELF, because they put selfish things before God. They don't trust in God.

If you fall in this category of those who don't trust God and rob Him weekly, you need to take Him at his Word. Malachi 3:10 says,

"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Now, don't get me wrong, God's blessing you does not depend on what you do for him. What you do for him is a witness to the fact that you are leaning and depending on Him blessing YOU. When you trust God, he will bless you.

I'm sure there's somebody here that doesn't believe what I just read from Malachi 3:10. You're probably asking, "How can you be so blessed that you can't receive it? "

Well, watch this!

Back in 1992, my wife was working in the City Clerk's Office at the City of Oakland. She had a good, secure job. But when the City Clerk retired from her job as the City Clerk, the Personnel Department refused to interview Frances because the decision had already been made as to who would replace the City Clerk, even before she was gone. So, while she was still working for the City of Oakland,  Frances applied for a position as District Secretary with AC Transit, and she applied for the position of Assistant City Clerk in Milpitas about the same time. The City of Milpitas called to offer her a job first; then before she could respond to Milpitas with a start date, AC Transit called to offer her their job, and she still had her job with the City of Oakland. 

This is an example of receiving a blessing that she didn't have room enough to receive. There was no way that she could work for Oakland, Milpitas, and AC Transit at the same time. Not only did God bless her with a new job, he blessed her with a choice of jobs.

What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that there are some definite benefits to trusting the Lord! The Lord does not expect us to be ignorant of his desire to bless us. The Word tells us in the 55th Psalm, verse 22,

"Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. "

When you think that you are not being blessed, the failure to act does not lie with God, it rests with you! When burdens come your way or you are hurting spiritually, you stay home away from the church and turn away from the support of the fellowship. The right course of action is making your way to God's house, finding fellowship with God's people, and communing with his Spirit that is always present.

If I were to take some members’ church attendance into account when measuring how much they trust God, I think that many of them would come up short! Some just show up once a month. Others make a grand appearance for special occasions. And, these are the same members who wonder why the Lord just doesn't seem to bless them?

As a Pastor, I am obligated to remind the congregation of the benefits of attending worship service.

• If you keep your membership in "good and regular standing", you will find comfort in knowing that God is real and that He is in the blessing business.

• If you stay around this altar Sunday after Sunday and develop a committed prayer life every day of the week, you will see how God lifts your burdens. And, not only will He lift your burdens, but He will save your soul.

• When you trust God, you learn not to worry about everything because the Word teaches us that, "you can't go wrong trusting in God.

Just as Job and Abraham trusted God, men of the modern era have found him to be just as trustworthy.

Rev. W. C. Martin trusted God and I'm sure he had something like today's sermon in mind when he wrote the hymn, " My Father Watches Over Me. " Listen to this:

"I trust in God— wherever I may be. Upon the land— or on the rolling sea. For come what may —from day to day. My heavenly Father watches over me."

Church, there are some benefits for trusting God.

David trusted Him and this is what David said, "He will give you joy. "

And, he wrote in the Psalm 5, verse 11,

"But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee."

Every man, woman, boy and girl needs to know that — if there is something you really want from God, the key is found in Psalm 37:5:

"Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. "

My brothers and sisters, trusting in the Lord is just good. Read your bible, it says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good, BLESSED is the man that trusteth in Him." (Psalm 34:9)

If you are a member of the Church, you need to see the benefit of trusting God by the fact that you still have life in this era of coronavirus pandemic.  If you are outside the arc of safety – if you’ve never accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, you need to trust God and commit your life to Him because He has kept you through these times of brutal killings on the streets. The time is now to make up your mind to come to Jesus and trust Him. 

Job made it through all of his troubles because he trusted in God.

Abraham was able to save his son's life because he trusted in God.

Don't leave this virtual service today without knowing that you too can make it. All you have to do is just put your trust in God. Be determined to “trust in the Lord until you die.”  Amen.

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Performed by Trinity United Church of Christ

Performed by Jessy Dixon