| liturgy |
April 30th, 2006
Reflection
Where worship is ignored, fellowship will become thin and man-centered and unspiritual, and evangelism will tend to call people to a social group rather than to a sovereign God. Where nurture is ignored, the deceitfulness of sin will run unchecked in the narrow ruts of individualism and the collective testimony of a loving people will vanish, and the united heart of worship will disintegrate into isolated struggles for private religious experience. And where evangelism is ignored, the recipients of grace become such living contradictions of the reality they profess that soon their worship feels like a sham and their relationships are clogged by a nagging, unspoken sense of inauthenticity. ::John Piper
Call to Worship and Invocation
Let us worship God.
He is our refuge and our fortress,
our God, in whom we trust.
Let us confess with our mouths, “Jesus is Lord,”
and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead.
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
Let us call upon our true God, believing him in our hearts,
confessing him with our mouths, worshiping him in spirit and in truth.
::based on Psalm 91:2; Romans 10:9, 13
Hymn of Adoration
Come Thou Fount
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
let us love and sing and wonder
let us praise the savior’s name
he has hushed the law’s loud thunder
he has quenched mount sinai’s flame
he has washed us with his blood
he has washed us with his blood
he has washed us with his blood
he has brought us nigh to god.
let us love the lord who bought us
pitied us when enemies
called us by his grace and taught us
gave us ears and gave us eyes
he has washed us with his blood
he has washed us with his blood
he has washed us with his blood
he presents our souls to god
let us sing though fierce temptation
threaten hard to bear us down
for the lord our strong salvation
holds in view the conqu’ror’s crown
he who washed us with his blood
he who washed us with his blood
he who washed us with his blood
soon will bring us home to god
let us wonder grace and justice
join and point to mercy’s store
when through grace in christ our trust is
justice smiles and asks no more
he who washed us with his blood
he who washed us with his blood
he who washed us with his blood
has secured our way to god
let us praise and join the chorus
of the saints enthroned on high
here they trusted him before us
now their praises fill the sky
thou hast washed us with thy blood
thou hast washed us with thy blood
thou hast washed us with thy blood
thou art worthy lamb of god.
Confession of Sin
Almighty and most merciful Father, we are thankful that your mercy is higher than the heavens, wider than our wanderings, deeper than all our sin. Forgive us for our frivolous attitude towards life, our callousness towards suffering, our envy of those who have more than we have, our obsession with creating a life of constant pleasure, our indifference to the treasures of heaven, our neglect of your wise and gracious law. Help us to change our way of life so that we may desire what is good, love what you love and do what you command. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Silent confession
Thy mercy
Thy mercy my God is the theme of my song
The joy of my heart and boast of my tongue
Thy free grace alone from the first to the last
Has won my affection and bound my soul fast.
Without thy sweet mercy i could not live here.
sin would reduce me to utter despair
but through thy free goodness,
my spirits revived
and he that first made me still keeps me alive.
thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
who wonders to feel its own hardness depart
‘tis all by thy goodness, i fall to the ground
and weep to the praise of the mercy i’ve found.
great father of mercy, thy goodness i own
in the covenant love of thy crucified son
all praise to the spirit whose whisper divine
seals mercy and pardon and righteousness, mine.
Assurance of pardon (1 Peter 2:24)
He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
Continue
continue to love me with that same love,
righteous and unchanging
continue to love me with that same love,
priceless and unfailing
your love, it reaches to the sky
your righteousness, the mountain high
how priceless, your unending love
both high and low among men
take cover under your wings
how priceless your unending love
continue to love me
how priceless your unending love.
sermon audio
Confession of faith
My only comfort in life and in death is that I am not my own, but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with his precious blood, and has set me free from the tyranny of the devil. He also watches over me in such a way that not a hair can fall from my head without the will of my Father in heaven: in fact, all things must work together for my salvation. Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures me of eternal life and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him. ::from Heidelberg Catechism, Q&A 1
Invitation & fencing of the table
prayers of preparation
Words of institution -1 cor. 11:23-26
Pensive, Doubting, Fearful Heart
Pensive, doubting, fearful heart,
Hear what Christ the Savior says;
Every word should joy impart,
Change thy mourning into praise.
Yes, He speaks and speaks to thee,
May He help thee to believe;
Then thou presently will see
Thou has little cause to grieve.
Fear thou not, nor be ashamed;
All thy sorrows soon shall end,
I, who heaven and earth have framed,
Am thy Husband and thy Friend;
I the High and Holy One,
Israel's God, by all adored,
As thy Savior will be known,
Thy Redeemer and thy Lord.
For a moment I withdrew,
And thy heart was filled with pain;
But my mercies I'll renew;
Thou shall soon rejoice again;
Though I seem to hide my face,
Very soon my wrath shall cease;
'Tis but for a moment's space,
Ending in eternal peace.
Though afflicted, tempest tossed,
Comfortless awhile thou art,
Do not think thou can be lost,
Thou art graven on my heart;
All thy wastes I will repair;
Thou shalt be rebuilt anew;
And in thee it shall appear
What the God of love can do.
Benediction |
posted by grace centrality @ 1:37 PM  |
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And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. Ephesians 4:4-16 |
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