Sermon Notes & Family Worship – September 4

Sermon notes on the conflict between Paul and Barnabas from Acts 15:36-41.

Sermon 29 – Breaking Up

New City Catechism Question #36

Song this week – Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

Our Corporate Prayer from the service:

O merciful Father, who looks down upon the weaknesses of Your human children more in pity than in anger, and more in love than in pity, let me now in Your holy presence inquire into the secrets of my heart.  

Have I today done anything to fulfill the purpose for which You caused me to be born?

Have I accepted the opportunities of service that You in Your wisdom have set before me?

Have I performed without omission the plain duties of the day?

Give me grace to answer honestly, O God.

Have I today done anything to tarnish my Christian witness?

Have I been lazy in body or languid in spirit?

Have I wrongfully indulged my bodily appetites?

Have I kept my imagination pure and healthy? 

Have I been scrupulously honorable in all my business dealings?

Have I been transparently sincere in all I have professed to be, to feel, or to do?

Give me grace to answer honestly, O God.

Have I tried today to see myself as others see me?

Have I made more excuses for myself than I have been willing to make for others?

Have I, in my own home, been a peacemaker or have I stirred up strife?

Have I, while professing noble sentiments for great causes and distant objects, failed even in common charity and courtesy toward those nearest to me?

Give me grace to answer honestly, O God.

O Lord, whose infinite love, made manifest in Jesus Christ, alone has power to destroy the empire of evil in my soul, grant that with each day that passes I may more and more be delivered from my besetting sins.

From A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie © 1949 by Charles Scribner’s Sons