Welcome to sojournmusic.com’s weekly worship music set list review & service recap. You’ll not only read a list of the songs we led following the Call To Worship, but also the readings and prayers from our liturgy. You can find links to the set lists of this church and many other churches each week in the Worship Blog Carnival at theworshipcommunity.com. And you can learn about some of the songs we sing at Sojourn Gathered each week in advance of the Sunday service by reading my “Getting Ready For Sunday” post each Thursday at Sojourn’s online journal, TravelBlog. Photos this Sunday courtesy David Kidd, from our J-Town Campus.
Some campuses/service times deviated slightly from this set list.
Call To Worship:
God tells us that we are not orphans, we are His children. We belong to a Father who loves us. This Father has invited us into the kind of love shared between the Father and the Son. Even though our own sin and guilt might hurt our ability to “feel” His love… Even though, sometimes we might “feel” unlovable, God tells us that He loves us and that we are His.
Hear Christ’s invitation to us today:
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. -John15:9-11
It is a joyful thing to respond to the words of Jesus. Let’s sing!
Song: The Love Of God by Frederick Lehman. This gospel hymn is a strong celebration of assurance and affirmative answer to God’s call to worship.
O love of God, how rich and pure
How marvelous and strong
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints and angels song.
Call to Confession:
Let’s pray this historic prayer together.
O God the Holy Spirit,
Teach us what we cannot learn on our own.
Keep us as humble students in the school of Christ,
learning daily what we are in ourselves, fallen sinful creatures,
rightly deserving everlasting destruction;
O let us never lose sight of our need of a Savior,
or forget that apart from him we are nothing, and can do nothing.
Show us the Father’s love as You have revealed it in the Scriptures;
Effect our souls with the blood of Christ,
and help us to believe, with our guilt and fears comforted,
that it cleanses all sin;
You teach us to draw near to Christ with a pure heart,
convinced of his love for us, in the full assurance of faith.
Let us never stumble in this way, abiding in You alone.
-Adapted from The Valley Of Vision
Song: Abide With Me written by Henry Lyte, with music Justin Smith of Indelible Grace. We’ve been singing this hymn of petition for a couple years’ now at Sojourn Gathered. It’s a great confession of our dependence on God, and affirmation of His goodness, sovereignty and faithfullness:
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, abide with me.
Celebration Of Assurance:
God is with us. We know that He hears us today. We find comfort in knowing that our prayers are not offered in vain. Our God isn’t deaf, but He is attentive and a loving Father.
Hear the word of the Lord:
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. – John 15:15
With this assurance of friendship with God, let’s make this song our prayer.
Song: Compel My Heart To Sing written by Brooks Ritter and Rebecca Elliott, based on Hymn 126, Book 2 by Isaac Watts. We recorded this on our new album, The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two. You can hear “Compel My Heart To Sing” in its entirety from our Bandcamp page for The Water And The Blood.
Jesus’ says to us…
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
-John15:12
With Christ’s words in mind, let’s take some time and greet one another.
Giving:
Hear the word of the Lord:
If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions.
-1 John 3:17-18
God’s love is active, Amen? When we were dead in our sins, Christ pursued us– he had compassion on us. In this same way, as the text says, we are to show the truth of God’s love not only in word but in action as well. So, let’s allow this truth to fuel our giving, knowing that all things are Gods, we are giving back what is already His.
Let’s pray…
Generous God, you have given us life,
a place to live in, and people to live with.
Open our eyes to each other and to all our brothers and sisters,
especially the poor, the oppressed, the alienated.
Make us humble enough to help and comfort them,
so that your love and justice and peace may come to them.
We dedicate ourselves and our gifts to you and to the service of others, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Song: Abiding City written by Sandra McCracken and Thomas Kelly. This is a solid modern worship song, in which we sing of our eternal city to come even as we ask the Holy Spirit “Spirit, heal our neighborhood/ until Your kingdom work is done.”
Then our pastor continued our summer sermon series, The Last Meal, based on John 13-17. This week he focused on John 15:1-17, where Jesus taught “I am the vine and you are the branches.” You can hear Sojourn sermons on our Sojourn Church iTunes podcast or the Sermon library at sojournchurch.com.
Song: Flood written by Adam Russell. This was our communion song of the week.
Your blood was the flood that devastated sin
You’ve washed out all obstructions
Poured Your Spirit inside me
Now You live in me
Song: Your Blood Says Everything written by Billy Sommerville. This is one of the “old veterans” in the Sojourn Music set list repertoire. So many Sojourn members have known it by heart for years, and sing it loudly.
Reading:
God’s love is sufficient for us as we receive it through the gospel. Let’s hear Paul’s prayer for the Philippians and in turn, for us here today.
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—To God be the glory and praise! Amen!
-Philippians 1:9-11
Song: O Church Arise a modern hymn written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty. This was our “song for the Sending” this week:
Our call to war, to love the captive soul
But to rage against the captor
And with the sword that makes the wounded whole
We will fight with faith and valour
Benediction:
May our Lord Jesus Christ,
the One who came with grace and truth,
also fill your hearts with grace and truth,
as you serve him in the days ahead.
And may the joy of the Lord—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—
be your strength. Peace be with You.
