NCF Sunday Worship Livestream - July 5, 2026

MEDITATION - Exodus 36:5

“and [they] said to Moses, “The people bring much more than enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do.””

CALL TO WORSHIP - Psalm 112

“Praise the Lord! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever. Light dawns in the darkness for the upright; he is gracious, merciful, and righteous. It is well with the man who deals generously and lends; who conducts his affairs with justice. For the righteous will never be moved; he will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid, until he looks in triumph on his adversaries. He has distributed freely; he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever; his horn is exalted in honor. The wicked man sees it and is angry; he gnashes his teeth and melts away; the desire of the wicked will perish!”

NT READING - Luke 18:18-30

And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’ ” And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” But he said, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.” And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.”

HBC - LD 27 / QA#74 -

Question 74. Are infants also to be baptized?

Yes. For since they, as well as their parents, belong to the covenant and people of God, and both redemption from sin and the Holy Ghost, who works faith, are through the blood of Christ promised to them no less than to their parents: they are also by Baptism, as a sign of the Covenant, to be ingrafted into the Christian Church, and distinguished from the children of unbelievers, as was done in the Old Testament by Circumcision, in place of which in the New Testament Baptism is appointed.

SERMON SERIES - RENEWAL IN CHRIST |2 CORINTHIANS|

SERMON TEXT - 2 Corinthians 8:1-7

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

SERMON TITLE - THE GENEROSITY GOSPEL

SERMON SUMMARY -

In a church, there are three topics that are certain to make the congregation uncomfortable… sin, politics and perhaps most of all… money. Jesus spoke often about money and its trappings. The 16th century Reformation grew out of a great concern about how the church was raising money to fund the Renaissance. Many have left the church in modern times because of the prevalence of the so-called Prosperity Gospel and its monstrous growth around the world. Throughout 2 Corinthians, Paul has made it clear that Christians are called to a life of suffering and grief… but also joy. This begs the question, if we are not in the business of preaching a gospel of absolute prosperity… what then is the church to model as it handles money in a sinful world? In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul presents to the church a gospel of generosity, which runs entirely counter to ever form of the prosperity gospel. The church is to be overflowing with generosity. We have been called to be generous when times are abundant and when times are scarce, not to be blessed by God, but because Christians have been blessed by Jesus. The Apostle presents generosity to God’s people as an act of grace. Open your heart to today’s message and learn of God’s desire to shape you into a miraculously generous follower of Jesus.