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Gathering
Prelude
Introit Enter Into His Gates Choir
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving (2x)
Enter into His courts with praise!
Call to Worship
Hymn of Praise Great Is Thy Faithfulness PH 276
Invocation Prayer
Gloria Patri (Reminding us that God is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.)
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.
Silence (Let us personally confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness.)
Prayer of Confession (Let us collectively confess our sins to God
and ask for His forgiveness.)
Forgive us, Lord when our witness is timid and heartless.
Forgive us for allowing visions of Your kingdom
clouded by human folly;
songs of Your glory sung in dissonance;
half-hearted attempts at service prodded by guilt.
Restore in us the wonder of Your love,
and a longing for Your presence with us.
Teach our tongues to sing the melody of Your grace;
help us run the race set before us
looking to Christ who loves us,
who shows us who You are
and calls us to be servants,
in whose name we pray. Amen.
5th Sunday after the Epiphany
Order of Service 07 February 2021
8.45 a.m.
Please stand if you are able
Let us give to the Lord our undivided attention by putting our handphones on silent mode.
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Assurance of Pardon (Our need to know forgiveness.)
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1: 9)
Welcome & Exchange of Peace (Passing the peace of those forgiven by God.)
Responsive Reading Psalm 147: 1 - 11
1 Praise the LORD!
For it is good to sing praises to our God;
for it is pleasant, and a song of praise is fitting.
2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem;
he gathers the outcasts of Israel.
3 He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds.
4 He determines the number of the stars;
he gives to all of them their names.
5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
his understanding is beyond measure.
6 The LORD lifts up the humble;
he casts the wicked to the ground.
7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving;
make melody to our God on the lyre!
8 He covers the heavens with clouds;
he prepares rain for the earth;
he makes grass grow on the hills.
9 He gives to the beasts their food,
and to the young ravens that cry.
10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his pleasure in the legs of a man,
11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who hope in his steadfast love.
Hymn/Song Blessed Assurance PH 341
Offering My Friend And I
Words and Music by Ralph Carmichael
There has never been a friend like Jesus,
I have never found a friend so true;
When I weaken and my steps grow wayward,
Then He comes to me with strength anew.
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Chorus
We walk hand in hand through this pilgrim land
Here we linger for a day; but soon we'll leave
This land of night for that land so bright
There my friend and I will stay.
Let me recommend this friend so faithful, He will
Understand your deepest need;
For He walked this lonely path before us
And He's able ev'ry step to lead
Doxology & Thanksgiving (Hope draws its conclusion from the past to
the future producing a doxology.)
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow, Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Pastoral Prayer & The Lord’s Prayer (sung)
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on
earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine
is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.
The Word
Anthem Ancient Words with How Firm A Foundation
Words and Music by Lynn Deshazo
Holy words, long preserved for our walk in this world;
They resound with God’s own heart, O let the ancient words impart
Words of life, words of hope, give us strength, help us cope
In this world, where e’re we roam, ancient words will guide us home.
Chorus
Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you
We have come with open hearts, O let the ancient words impart.
Holy words of our faith, handed down to this age,
Came to us through sacrifice, O heed the faithful words of Christ
Holy words, long preserved for our walk in this world,
They resound with God’s own heart, O let the ancient words impart.
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word!
What more can He say than to you He has said
To you who for refuge to Jesus have fled.
…continued on next page
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Chorus
Ancient words, ever true, changing me and changing you
We have come with open hearts, O let the ancient words impart.
O let the ancient words impact.
Scripture Reading Revelation 8: 1 - 13
1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half
an hour. 2 Then I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and seven trumpets were
given to them. 3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer,
and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden
altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints,
rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled
it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder,
rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.
6 Now the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared to blow them.
7 The first angel blew his trumpet, and there followed hail and fire, mixed with blood,
and these were thrown upon the earth. And a third of the earth was burned up, and a
third of the trees were burned up, and all green grass was burned up.
8 The second angel blew his trumpet, and something like a great mountain, burning
with fire, was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood. 9 A third of the
living creatures in the sea died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.
10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a
torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the
star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died
from the water, because it had been made bitter.
12 The fourth angel blew his trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of
the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of their light might be darkened, and
a third of the day might be kept from shining, and likewise a third of the night.
13 Then I looked, and I heard an eagle crying with a loud voice as it flew directly
overhead, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth, at the blasts of the other
trumpets that the three angels are about to blow!”
Reader This is the Word of the Lord.
Congregation Thanks be to God.
Sermon The Seventh Seal, A Pause Dr Philip Satterthwaite
And Four Trumpet Blasts
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Our Response
Celebrating the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper
Communion Hymn Behold The Lamb
Invitation to the Lord’s Table
Hymn of Response O God Of Every Nation PH 289
Sending
Charge and Blessing
Choral Dismissal Thine Is The Kingdom
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory, forever, Amen!
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CHURCH NEWS
1. PSPC Livestreamed Holy Communion
PSPC will be conducting livestreamed Holy Communion TODAY (07 February). All
baptised or confirmed congregants are reminded to prepare the bread and wine/juice
before the start of the service.
2. Lunar New Year Greetings & Closure of Office
The Elders and Deacons Court (EDC) with the Pastoral and Admin Team wish all
congregants a very blessed Lunar New Year. The Church Office therefore will be
opened till 1pm on 11 February (Thursday) due to Chinese New Year Eve and will be
closed on 12 & 13 February (Friday & Saturday) due to Chinese New Year, and 15
February (Monday) in lieu of 13 February (Saturday).
3. Administrative Executive Position
PSPC is looking to employ a full-time senior Administrative Executive to provide
administrative support for the Chinese Ministry as well as the English Service. The
candidate should be effectively bi-lingual - able to read and write fluently in English
and Chinese. The responsibilities include preparing ministry documents, liaising with
ministry workers, uploading content on social media, assisting with organization of
events, and other such administrative tasks. The candidate should be suitably qualified,
proficient in Microsoft Office programs, mature and have years of experience in office
administration. Interested candidates should email their resumes to the Church Office
4. HELLO Class 2021
HELLO (Helping English Learners through Listening & Oracy) Class will be starting
again soon. We would like to extend an invitation through our congregants to your
current or new helpers to join us this year. Here are some updates for your information:
a) HELLO Class Zoom Meetings for 2021 (Every Sunday, 10:30am - 11:15am)
HELLO Class will resume from 7 March onwards. It will be via Zoom every
Sunday at 10:30am - 11:15am. We will continue to use the learning of English
language to minister God’s word and extend hospitality to meet the social and
emotional needs of our foreign friends.
b) Chinese New Year Gathering (21 February 2021, 2:30pm - 5:00pm)
We would like to invite your domestic helpers to a local home to celebrate the
festive season together with us. To keep to Phase 3 guidelines, we will keep to 8
visitors per house. 3 different homes situated in the East, Central and West will be
open. The girls can choose to sign up for one of the homes based on their proximity
and the event will be linked up via Zoom. Please inform your helpers that TODAY
(7 Feb) will be the final day to sign up!
We will also take the opportunity to show them how to connect to HELLO class,
which will be done online this year.
Please contact Huixian at [email protected] for the sign up link if you would
like your helper to join in the gathering. The existing HELLO Class attendees will
also receive the sign up link via their facilitators.
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Church News continued...
5. Marriage Preparation Class
The next round of Marriage Preparation Class (MPC) will be conducted from 13
March onwards. This will prepare couples who intend to get married between end
2021 to early 2022. The MPC is a weekly 7-session commitment. For enquiries and
registration, please contact Veronica Yong ([email protected]) by 28 February.
Dates: 13, 20, 27 March; 10, 17, 24 April; and 8 May
(Easter Sunday 3 April and Labour Day 1 May being breaks)
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Venue: Online via Zoom
6. PSPC Online Prayer Meeting
As God’s people, we are commanded to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17).
The next Prayer & Praise (Church Prayer Meeting) will be as follows. Let us come
together to pray at the beginning of Lent, and prepare our hearts to reflect on Christ’s
sacrifice, and to grow deeper in our relationship with God.
Date: 17 February (Wednesday)
Time: 8pm - 9:15pm
We will be using Zoom online meeting platform. The Zoom ID and password have
already been sent to Cell Group Leaders who will disseminate them to their cell group
members. Congregants who are not in cell groups may contact Foo Hui Xian
([email protected]) for the login details or for technical support.
7. Staff Movement
Jess Goh - Hospitalization Leave (4 - 18 February).
Elders Serving Holy Communion (07 February)
Lawrence Chia / Jonathan Kok / Justin Lee / Long Seh Wei
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SERMON OUTLINE Speaker: Dr Philip Satterthwaite
Text : Revelation 8: 1 - 13
Title : The Seventh Seal, A Pause And Four Trumpet Blasts
Introduction
The seven seals (6:1–8:1) and the seven trumpets (8:6–11:19):
Seven seals (6:1–8:5) Seven trumpets (8:6–11:19)
Seal 1 (6:1-2) Trumpet 1 (8:7)
Seal 2 (6:3-4) Trumpet 2 (8:8-9)
Seal 3 (6:5-6) Trumpet 3 (8:10-11)
Seal 4 (6:7-8) Trumpet 4 (8:12-13)
Seal 5 (6:9-11) Trumpet 5 (9:1-12)
Seal 6 (6:12-14); lament of humanity
in response to God’s judgment (vv.
15-17)
Trumpet 6 (9:13-19); impenitence of
humanity in response to God’s
judgment
PAUSE (7:1-17): sealing of God’s
people; praise of the redeemed
PAUSE (10:1–11:14): the angel and
the scroll; the two witnesses
Seal 7 (8:1-2) linking to seven
trumpets
Trumpet 7 (11:15a)
CONCLUSION (8:3-5): prayers,
thunder and lightning
CONCLUSION (11:15b-19): praise,
thunder, lightning, earthquake, hail
• The same pattern, but an intensification with the trumpets
• Not a single series of events (Ignore the Left Behind series!)
• Both seals and trumpets are a representation of human history (judgments)
1. The Seventh Seal (8:1-5)
• The build-up to the breaking of the 7th seal
• The unexpected climax: a great silence; the seven trumpets
• Prayers, incense, thunder and lightning
• But the contents of the scroll have yet to be revealed (See c. 10)
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2. The First Four Trumpet Blasts (8:6-12)
• 1st trumpet: hail, fire, blood
• 2nd trumpet: a fiery mountain cast into the sea
• 3rd trumpet: a great star (‘Wormwood’) from heaven
• 4th trumpet: sun, moon and stars darkened
• Repeated mention of ‘a third’ (contrast 6:8, ‘a fourth’)
• ‘Woe, woe, woe!’ (v. 13)
3. Interpreting the Text
• How to understand the judgments of 8:6-13?
• Not literally…
• …not as teaching ‘Things will get worse and worse’…
• …but seriously
• (Where do catastrophes come from?)
Conclusion:
• The importance of our prayers
• How to respond to human suffering?
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REFLECTIONS THE REVIEW OF THE YEAR
(EXAMEN PRAYER FOR THE YEAR)
Today marks the 38th day of the Gregorian Calendar 2021, and the fourth day before
the Lunar New Year 2021. It has been a year since the global breakout of Covid-19. It has
been a long and hard year for many. Our lives have changed significantly during this one
year - in the way we live, work, learn and play, and how we usher in the New Year and
celebrate it.
At the beginning of each year, I often do a review of the year. I used to run through
what are somethings I have done well and what are some things I can improve upon and set
some goals for myself. Two years ago, I started using examen prayer to review the year.
Examen prayer grants me greater perspective and depth in my life; it helps me to be more
aware of the movements in my heart, my relationship with people and most importantly
God’s grace in my life.
As I move into 2021, the examen prayer I did in January helped me to first look back
at how I have been in the past year. I lament at the things I need to let go but rejoice at what
I can let go. I thank God for my growth, and also thank him for my failings and the many
lessons he taught me. It is so comforting to know that God sees my deeper self, the person
behind all the activity, the person made in his image. I feel so loved by him. There are many
unknowns in 2021, and I think about possible challenges and blessings in my family, at work,
in relationships and many more. I set my gaze upon Jesus to help me face the journey ahead
of me with hope and gratitude.
How about you? How has 2020 been for you? Where is God leading you in 2021?
What is God’s desire for you in 2021? May I invite you to set aside time for a retreat on
examen prayer to prayerfully reflect and review how God has been working in your life,
your relationship with Him, your family and friends in the past year and how God may be
directing you in 2021. Here is the “Examen Prayer for the year” taken from the website,
https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/examen-prayer-for-the-year/.
May you be blessed and renewed with hope through the examen prayer.
Pr Dawn Tan
EXAMEN PRAYER FOR THE YEAR
By Vinita Hampton Wright
As we transit into the new year, let’s try an Examen prayer of our previous year. It’s really
pretty simple: the Examen helps us reflect on a past period of time—usually we reflect
prayerfully over the previous day or the previous few hours. But I believe we can apply these
principles to the past calendar year as well.
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Step One: Become aware of God’s presence.
One way of doing this is to ask the Holy Spirit to help you review the year with a holy
perspective—with wisdom, grace, and faith. Ask for the grace to tear yourself away from
your own patterns of thinking and seeing so that you can see your life more as God sees it.
Of course you will see your failings—but God sees you as a beloved daughter or son who
has a future and a hope. Of course you will see your accomplishments—but God sees your
deeper self, the person behind all the activity, a person made in God’s image.
Step Two: Review the year with gratitude.
As you use this holy perspective to review the year, pay attention to the good gifts from the
year ending. Name specifically those that come to memory now, and thank God for them.
Step Three: Pay attention to your emotions.
Think over the year again, and notice your emotional reactions. What memories speak most
loudly to you? What events, conversations, relationships, or activities bring up the most
emotion now, as you remember them? Ask God to help you linger with these emotions,
whether they are pleasant or disturbing. Ask for help in understanding why you feel as you
do. What can you learn about yourself or about your situation as you dwell in your emotional
responses?
Step Four: Choose one feature of the year and pray from it.
While you are lingering with your memories and emotions, settle on one feature. Perhaps it
is a single event, or maybe it’s a pattern of your own behavior that has come to mind as you
reviewed the year. Whatever it is that has emerged, allow it to fuel your prayer. Don’t worry
about the many other aspects of the year that you could think about right now; stay with the
one thing that has come to you with the most power and pray from those thoughts and
emotions.
Step Five: Look toward the new year.
Imagine what challenges and blessings might await you in the coming year. Think of
important relationships, major (and minor) decisions to be made, skills to learn, habits to
build, healing to seek, good work to accomplish. Make a simple list of highlights—matters
that you expect to take prominence in your life in the new year. Bring them to God now, and
ask for the graces you will need.
End your prayer, thanking God for love and life and holy possibilities.
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INFODESK
07 February 2021 14 February 2021
Preacher
Dr Philip Satterthwaite Rev Kelvin Chen
Worship Leader
Lynn Heng Eld Jack Lum
Scripture Reader
Janine Wan Wilma Lum
Musicians
Organist – Mae Heng
Pianist – Selena Chua
Benjamin Cher
Long Seh Wei
Jeremy Tsang
Jordan Wong
Music Team Backup Singers
Members of Church Choir tba
Ushers
Doreen Cher
Liu Wei Joe Lee & Ee Mei
AV Crews
Audio - Benjamin Smith
Visual - Audrey Tan
Audio - Nicholas Smith
Visual - Mei Smith
Counting Supervisors
Andre Chia Dn Tay Bee Kiat
Live Stream Team
Livestream Coordinator:
Dn Loh Shu Ching
English Service:
Zekeil Tay
Dn Andrew Ong
Livestream Coordinator:
Dn Loh Shu Ching
English Service:
Benjamin Smith
Dn Andrew Ong
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PSPC E-GIVING INSTRUCTIONS
PSPC has rolled out the option of collecting offerings electronically. To enable the Church Office
to allocate your offerings to the right funds, please follow the details below when making your e-
Offering.
There are 3 Methods of e-Offering: Electronic Bank Transfer, PayNow via UEN number and PayNow via code in banking app. Choose the method that you are familiar with.
Method 1: Electronic Bank Transfer
PSPC Bank Details
Bank Code Branch Code Account Number
7171 100 1009051531
Method 2: PayNow via UEN number
a) Select PayNow from your banking app and log in.
b) Select Unique Entity Number (UEN), input T13SS0009A and click “Next”.
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c) Enter your offering amount and details of your offering under “Enter UEN/Bill Reference No” or “PayNow Ref No”. Click “Next” and “Transfer Now” after checking that the details and amount are correct.
Method 3: PayNow via Code in banking app
a) Select Scan & Pay from your banking app.
b) Scan the Code using your banking app.
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c) Enter your offering amount and Details of your offering under “Enter UEN/Bill Reference
No” or “PayNow Ref No”. Click “Next” and “Transfer Now” after checking that the details
and amount are correct.
For all methods, if you wish to direct your offering to a specific fund or recipient, please indicate the details below in the Bill Reference Number section.
Details to indicate in e-Offering Type of offering
Offering CGF Church General Fund
Offering CBF Church Building Fund
Offering ASF Anniversary Seminary Fund
Love gift <name of designated individual or family>
Full amount given directly to designated individual / family
Support <name of designated individual or family>
Contribute to 20% support via missionary organization e.g. SIM, OMF etc.
EPJM, Love in Action, Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Angel Tree etc
Designated Funds
In the event that no details are indicated, offering will be treated as contribution to Church General Fund. If no indication of love gift or support, amount will be treated as love gift to individual or family. Cheques are still accepted via making it payable to “Prinsep Street Presbyterian Church” or “PSPC”. They can be mailed to PSPC at 77 Prinsep Street Singapore 188649 should the need arises.
