TRISAGION
Call to Worship: Psalm 119:25-34
Good morning, welcome to worship on this Lord’s Day, and this third Sunday in the season of Lent. Often one of the ways people observe this season is through fasting. Giving up temporary pleasures, small comforts, little places we seek to find life - but we also feast on the place we find true and abundant life - God’s Word. So let’s sing God’s word, read, pray, preach, and live God’s Word…
THE SOLID ROCK
KING OF KINGS
BCP Corporate Confession
Sermon: 2 Peter 1:16-21
The Apostles’ Creed
Communion
I STAND AMAZED (HOW MARVELOUS)
Benediction
Communion
29 January: Liturgy + Set List
ALL CREATURES OF OUR GOD AND KING
Call to Worship: Psalm 95:1-7
The One who created and sustains all things is the One who keeps promises, keeps covenant, and keeps faithfulness forever. Let’s sing these truths about God to God, and to one another:
PROMISES
O PRAISE THE NAME (ANÁSTASIS)
Sermon: Mark 2:1-12
The Apostles Creed
Communion
HOLY (JESUS YOU ARE)
Benediction
June 12: Liturgy + Set List
HOW GREAT THOU ART
Call to Worship: Psalm 29:1-4
The voice of God cuts through all of the noise and chaos of the world and our lives. So let’s pray that as we sing, and as we sit under God’s Word, and as we come to the communion table we would hear the generative, generous, kind, voice of God, drawing us unto Himself and sending us out on mission.
GRAVES INTO GARDENS
GREAT ARE YOU LORD
Sermon: James 3:1-12
Communion
Let’s use our words to declare what is true of who God is and what He has done, would you stand and sing:
RAISE A HALLELUJAH
Benediction:
November 21: Liturgy + Set List
BEFORE THE THRONE
CALL TO WORSHIP: To all who are weary and need rest
To all who mourn and long for comfort
To all who feel worthless and wonder if God cares
To all who fail and desire strength
To all who sin and need a Savior
This church opens wide her doors with a welcome from Jesus Christ, the Ally of
His enemies, the Defender of the guilty, the Justifier of the inexcusable, the
Friend of sinners, welcome.
[10th Presbyterian Call to Worship]
We gather not as a collection of individuals, but as a people. The people of God standing before the throne of God, to pour out the praises of God. We stand here not because of anything we have done, but because of God’s grace alone.
GRACE ALONE
COME BEHOLD THE WONDROUS MYSTERY
Sermon: 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
THERE IS A REDEEMER
COMMUNION
DEATH WAS ARRESTED
Benediction: Ephesians 3:20-21
The Corporate Gathering Forming One Another
There is perhaps nothing the modern, Western, American loves more than personal rights and freedoms. We love our independence and the idea that we are self-made, capable of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps, and are self-sufficient. Is it any wonder that this kind of cultural value embeds itself in the local Church as well?
When our lives are marked my individuality, why would we desire to…
…give of ourselves in service?
…die to our preferences?
…be inconvenienced?
…consider others more significant than ourselves?
…attend church when we don’t feel like it?
The corporate worship gathering is - in large part - for the spiritual formation of God’s people. And forming people spiritually is forming them counter to the currents of our individual culture.
One of the reasons we gather is to be reminded that we are a part of a story bigger than ourselves. That we belong to the family of God, made up of people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language on the planet. This is a family that stretches throughout time, and history and will last into eternity. This family has existed before us, and will continue once we return to the dust. When we gather, we are once again caught up into the larger story, and find our place as one member of the body. The corporate gathering is not just for the individual, it is for the family.
And as the family gathers, we each contribute as many members of one body, as the Apostle Paul reminds us:
“For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” - 1 Corinthians 12:14-27
As members of this body we represent Christ to one another as a kingdom of priests:
“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” - 1 Peter 2:9
“and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” - Revelation 1:6
One of the ways we represent Christ to one another is by putting on…
“…as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” - Colossians 3:12-17
All of this is why we should not neglect…
“…to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” - Hebrews 10:25
We are forming the community, and the community is forming us.
22 August: Set List + Liturgy
ON CHRIST THE SOLID ROCK
Our world is not as it should be. Sin has warped and distorted and broken everyone and everything. Even creation itself groans under the weight of sin. Maybe you have experienced that first hand this week, or maybe you are aware of it as you have seen the devastation of another earthquake in Haiti and the chaos of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. Maybe you are thinking, ‘those things are sad, but I don’t live in Haiti or Afghanistan…’. One of the reasons we gather as the people of God is to be reminded that we belong together. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have not been saved just to be an individual, but have been saved to be a part of a family, a part of a Body of Christ, His Church. And if you are a member of this church, you belong to this local expression of the Body of Christ, but every follower of Jesus is also a member of the Global, Universal Church - the Body of Christ made up of followers of Jesus from every tribe, every tongue, every language and every nation on the planet throughout time, and history, even now. And right now, we have brothers and sisters, members of our family who we will never meet this side of eternity in Haiti and Afghanistan who are experiencing the weight and the brokenness of sin in a very acute way - and that should grieve us. But as followers of Jesus, we are people that hold tensions. We hold the tension of acknowledging that there is sin and brokenness in the world, and at the same time acknowledging that there is a firm foundation, a solid rock which is Christ - the One who will return to set all things right and make all things new. That is lament - grief and hope, grief with expectation, grief with anticipation of what God will do. We will continue in worship praying this prayer of lament particularly on behalf of our brothers and sisters in Haiti and Afghanistan.
PRAYER OF LAMENT:
LEADER:
Why, O Lord, do you stand far away?
Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?
ALL:
Arise, O Lord; O God, lift up Your hand;
forget not the afflicted.
LEADER:
How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long must I take counsel in my soul
and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
ALL:
But I have trusted in Your steadfast love;
my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
I will sing to the Lord,
because he has dealt bountifully with me.
ALL:
Deliver us, O Lord, from evil men;
preserve us from violent men,
who plan evil things in their heart
and stir up wars continually.
We know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and will execute justice for the needy.
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name;
the upright shall dwell in Your presence.
(Psalm 10:1-2, 12, Psalm 13:1-2,5-6, from Psalm 140:1-2, 12-13)
GRACE ALONE
BUILD MY LIFE
Sermon: Psalm 132
EVER BE
Communion
RAISE UP THE CROWN (ALL HAIL THE POWER)
December 3: Tuesday Refocus
‘The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.’ - Isaiah 9:2
From darkness to light is a theme we see throughout Scripture. We were those dwelling in deep darkness, darkened in our understanding, ignorant and hard-hearted (Eph 4:18). We loved the dark, hid ourselves and our actions in its covering (Jn 3:19, Lk 8:17).
This would still be our reality if not for Christ… ‘In Him was the life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ (Jn 1:4-5) Now ‘…if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.’ (1 Jn 1:7).
Out of darkness and isolation, and into union and communion with God and one another. In a small reflective way, this is what happens every week as we gather with the people of God. We step into the light of the gathered Church to be reminded that we are people who carry Light into a dark world. That we are the light of the world (Matt 5:14).
‘O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the LORD.’ Isaiah 2:5
Jesus, You are God with us - thank You! Help us walk with You as You walk with us. Bring us out of darkness into the Light of Your holiness. We desire to be people who have fellowship with You and one another more than the darkness. In Your name, amen.
Walking,
AB