January 1, 2012 AM Worship – Vine Street Baptist Church

Vine Street Baptist Church members and guests celebrated the first day of the year with worship, praise and learning.

Deacon Gary Cook opened the service with a reading of Psalm 118, followed by a prayer. Minister of Praise & Worship, Dr. Johann Kim, commented on the passage as a great blessing for all year. Kim lead the gathered in a set of hymns:

Holy, Holy, Holy
Come, Thou Almighty King
Come, Christians, Join to Sing
We Are Called to be God’s People

Dr. Kim welcomed guests and encouraged everyone to take several minutes to greet each other. After this time of fellowship, Pastor Ben Dockery took to the podium and introduced a new sermon series. For the next eight weeks, Pastor Ben will reinforce the three parts of Vine Street’s Mission Statement through supporting scripture references. These include

Love God . Serve People . Make Disciples

In addition to this introduction, Pastor Ben spent a few minutes on today’s scripture reference. Psalm 145 is in a grouping of Psalms that utilizes the Hebrew alphabet to organize the lines of the Psalm (like an acrostic poem). Pastor Ben wanted to start the year off thanking the Lord for all he did in 2011 in and through our church by using the English Alphabet to list things he is grateful for…

A . All of the people – church is about people and I want to start with the people of the church
B . Back to School Bash / Block Party – the families we ministered to
C . Clean Up Day – participation and transformation of so many of the churches rooms
D . Dwayne and Jennifer – their family and leadership in the church
E . Edna’s Estate – a sign of the Lord’s favor on the near future of Vine Street Baptist Church
F . Fellowships – especially the Souper Sunday Nights
G . Greeting Time – each Sunday morning during the worship service
H . Homecoming (55th Anniversary) – former pastors return to the church
I . Investment of all of the adults into the Bible training of the kids in the church
J . James – our six month study during 2011
K . Kindness people extended, especially during the loss of loved ones our church experienced
L . Logo and new bulletin
M . Mens’ Prayer Breakfast meetings
N . Nursery Workers! Nursery Workers! Nursery Workers!
O . Opportunities of new life: baby Luke, baby Emma, baby Clair
P . Prayer Meeting – the spiritual fuel that all of our ministries run on
Q . Quiet ministries of the church: unlocking doors, driving people to church, setting up the Lord’s Supper, running the sound system, decorating the church
R . Running into Alan Johns and having him become a part of the church
S . Shoeboxes Project and all that the Smart Kids do
T . Transforming the broken sidewalks to safe and smooth surfaces
U . Unchanging message of God’s Grace to us in Christ
V . Vacation Bible School (crossing the Red Sea)
W . Worship and praise through song each week
X . Xylophones – we can all feel better about ourselves because there is at least one instrument Johann cannot play
Y . Youth Sunday School class that started
Z . I am skipping Z because our Sermon Text today (Psalm 145) goes through the Hebrew Alphabet and skips one letter and maybe this will help you remember Psalm 145

Pastor Ben closed this part of the service with a prayer covering these things, as well as a few health and travel concerns. Matthew 5:1-16 was read by Mickie Bainter, the the congregation sang from the Baptist Hymnal, “Let Others See Jesus in You.” While the offering was collected, Hannah Kim sang “How Great is Our God.” Before the sermon was delivered, the choir presented a special arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision.”

Pastor Ben returned to the pulpit and presented the sermon, Our Great God. This is the first sermon of the series Great Aspects of the Church. The full audio can be heard by clicking on a link below, or right-click and select “Save As” to save the file to your computer.

January 1, 2012 AM Psalm 145 . Our Great God (Ben Dockery)

The main points from this sermon include:

God’s greatness is unlimited
God’s greatness is knowlege
God’s greatness is power

During a time of response, the congregation sang “How Great is our God.” To close out today’s service, Pastor Ben read 1 Peter 1 for the benediction.