Service Guide

Sunday, March 22, 2026

Welcome & Call to Worship

Psalm 36:5-7 (NIV)

Leader: Welcome to Evanston Bible Fellowship! If you’re new, we invite you to scan the QR code in front of you and fill out the connection card to let us know you’re here. Please stand for our call to worship from Psalm 36:5-7, reading the words in bold.
5 Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Leader: Let’s lift up our hearts and voices in worship!

How Vast The Love

Verse 1
Come gaze upon your Savior
Behold your great High Priest
Draw near in awe and wonder
His cross has spoken peace

Verse 2
Come rest from sin and striving
Find endless stores of grace
The heart that turns to Jesus
Is cleansed from every stain

Chorus
Oh how deep how wide how long
Oh how vast the love of Jesus
Oh how sure how sweet how strong
Oh how vast His love for us

Verse 3
So lift your eyes to Jesus
Arise from doubt and shame
His blood cries it is finished
Our life is in His name

Chorus
Oh how deep how wide how long
Oh how vast the love of Jesus
Oh how sure how sweet how strong
Oh how vast His love for us

Verse 4
What now can separate us
Can death or pain or fear
We have this strong assurance
In Christ we've been brought near

Verse 5
And in His strength we'll labor
His promises our hope
Thus far His love has led us
His love will lead us home

Chorus
Oh how deep how wide how long
Oh how vast the love of Jesus
Oh how sure how sweet how strong
Oh how vast His love for us

Joel Sczebel, Lacy Hudson, Marc Willerton
CCLI Song #7138111
© Sovereign Grace Praise; Sovereign Grace Worship
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License #195574

How Great Thou Art

Verse 1
O Lord my God
When I in awesome wonder
Consider all the worlds
Thy hands have made
I see the stars
I hear the rolling thunder
Thy pow'r thru'out
The universe displayed

Chorus
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art

Verse 3
And when I think
That God His Son not sparing
Sent Him to die
I scarce can take it in
That on the cross
My burden gladly bearing
He bled and died
To take away my sin

Chorus
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art

Verse 4
When Christ shall come
With shout of acclamation
And take me home
What joy shall fill my heart
Then I shall bow
In humble adoration
And there proclaim
My God how great Thou art

Chorus
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art
Then sings my soul
My Savior God to Thee
How great Thou art
How great Thou art

Stuart Wesley Keene Hine
CCLI Song #14181
© Copyright 1949 and 1953 Stuart Hine Trust CIO Stuart K. Hine Trust
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License #195574

It Is Well With My Soul

Verse 1
When peace like a river
Attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot
Thou hast taught me to say
It is well
It is well with my soul

Chorus
It is well with my soul
It is well
It is well with my soul

Verse 2
Tho' Satan should buffet
Tho' trials should come
Let this blest assurance control
That Christ hath regarded
My helpless estate
And hath shed His own blood
For my soul

Verse 3
My sin O the bliss
Of this glorious tho't
My sin not in part but the whole
Is nailed to the cross
And I bear it no more
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord O my soul

Verse 4
And Lord haste the day
When the faith shall be sight
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll
The trump shall resound
And the Lord shall descend
Even so it is well
With my soul

Horatio Gates Spafford, Philip Paul Bliss
CCLI Song #25376
© Words: Public Domain; Music: Public Domain
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License #195574

Confession & Assurance

Leader: Let us pray this prayer of confession together:

All: Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Leader: Sisters and brothers, hear the good news: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)

All: “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Col 1:13)

Scripture Reading: 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)

Leader: Please return and remain standing (as you are able) for today’s Scripture reading from 1 John 4:7-12 After the reading, the response will be, “Thanks be to God.”

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Leader: The Word of the Lord.

All: Thanks be to God!

Leader: You may be seated.

Message: Pastor Tim Allen

“Life-Giving Love” (1 John 4:7-12)

The Call to Love (v. 7)
The Source of Love (v. 7)
The Presence of Love (vv. 7-8)
The Centrality of Love (v. 8)
The Ultimate Expression of Love (vv. 9-10)
The Motivation to Love (v. 11)
The Completion of Love (v. 12)

Bottom Line: Our love for one another flows from God’s life-giving love!

Ethos Questions:

Read the text. Then read it again in another version. Then summarize the text as best you can.
What stands out to you from the text? What questions does it raise?
What does this text reveal to us about God?
What does this text reveal to us about ourselves and how we should respond to God?
How does this text in particular drive these truths home?
If this text did not exist, what would we be missing?
What problem or question is the text solving or answering? What issue is it addressing?
What solution or answer does the text offer to the primary issue it is addressing?
How does the text connect with the gospel?
How will you commit to obey the text this week?
With whom can you share what you have learned from the text?

For The One

Verse 1
Let me be filled
With kindness and compassion for the one
The one for whom You loved and gave Your Son
For humanity increase my love

Chorus
Help me to love with open arms like You do
A love that erases all the lines and sees the truth
Oh that when they look in my eyes
They would see You
Even in just a smile
They would feel the Father’s love

Verse 2
Oh how You love us
From the homeless to the famous and in-between
You formed us You made us carefully
‘Cause in the end we’re all Your children

Bridge
So let all my life tell of who You are
And the wonder of Your never-ending love
Oh let all my life tell of who you are
That You’re wonderful and such a good Father
(REPEAT)

That You are wonderful and such a good Father

Communion & Prayers of the People

O Praise The Name (Anástasis)

Verse 1
I cast my mind to Calvary
Where Jesus bled and died for me
I see His wounds His hands His feet
My Saviour on that cursed tree

Verse 2
His body bound and drenched in tears
They laid Him down in Joseph's tomb
The entrance sealed by heavy stone
Messiah still and all alone

Chorus
O praise the Name of the Lord our God
O praise His Name forevermore
For endless days we will sing Your praise
Oh Lord oh Lord our God

Verse 3
Then on the third at break of dawn
The Son of heaven rose again
O trampled death where is your sting
The angels roar for Christ the King

Verse 4
He shall return in robes of white
The blazing sun shall pierce the night
And I will rise among the saints
My gaze transfixed on Jesus' face

Benjamin Hastings, Dean Ussher, Marty Sampson
CCLI Song #7037787
© 2015 Hillsong Music Publishing Australia; Small City Music
For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com
CCLI License #195574

Announcements

Benediction: Romans 5:8-10 (NIV)

Leader: As we go, receive this benediction from Romans 5:8-10:

8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! 10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

Leader: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!