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 week courtesy Chuck Heeke, from the Midtown Campus evening services.
Call to Worship:
Welcome. We believe that no one is here by chance because God has a plan for everyone. Since the beginning of time, God designed a plan to redeem and save His people. We gather to renew our faith in His promises and worship Him, because He first loved us.
Let the whole world fear the Lord, and let everyone stand in awe of him.
For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.
The Lord’s plans stand firm forever;
His intentions can never be shaken.
What joy for the nation whose God is the Lord,
whose people he has chosen as his inheritance.
We put our hope in the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.
Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord, for our hope is in you alone.
-Based on Psalm 33
Song: With Every Breath written by Marc and Christine Byrd. This song is a natural response to God’s call to worship:
Hallelujah in the morning
Hallelujah for the beauty of His scars
Hallelujah in the twilight,
Hallelujah sun and moon, and shining stars
Call to Confession:
In the uncertainties of life, it is easy for us to fear tomorrow. Often we doubt God’s plan when temptations and trials come our way. Let us confess our weakness and ask for greater faith:
Father, you invite us in your word to rest and trust in your sovereign care.
But we cling to control, we trust our worries more than your word and we fill our minds, homes, and relationships with stress.
Father, forgive us, and help our unbelief.
Lord Jesus, you invite us in the gospel to find rest for our souls in following you, but we prefer being tied to our burdens, refusing the easy load you promise.
Christ, forgive us, and help our unbelief.
Spirit of God, you have filled our hearts with divine grace. You open our eyes to the glory of the gospel, and offer us the peace of Christ.
Spirit of God, have mercy on us, help us in our unbelief and fill us with faith in God’s word and the peace of Christ. Amen.
Song: Begone Unbelief by John Newton and Kevin Twit, a confession of our need for God and our reliance on His grace to receive his gift of life:
By faith let me wrestle with God in the storm
And help me my Savior, the faith to adorn
Song: Cling to the Crucified written by Kevin Twit, based on an anonymously written song from Bonar’s “Lyra Consolationis.” Kevin is the founder of Indelible Grace, and a pastor and scholar. Listen to the songwriting lecture he gave at Sojourn a couple weeks ago, focusing on the hymns of Anne Steele.
Words of Assurance/Passing of Peace:
God’s rescue plan for us is the life, death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ:
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son – Ephesians 1:4-6
God has brought us near to Himself through the cross, and we are brought near as a family. Let us welcome each other as family.
Commissioning — During the 5pm and 7pm services at the Midtown Campus, we commissioned Sojourner Joanna Miller, who will be leaving soon on a long term Sojourn International trip to spread the gospel in Africa.
Giving:
I urge you, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—
this is your spiritual worship.
—from Romans 12:1, NIV
As recipients of abundant life in Christ, we now offer our gifts to God. Let’s pray:
God, from the very beginning you gave man everything -A place to live, companionship, life itself – but most especially – a relationship with you. It is with this understanding that we give back what is rightfully yours. We know that giving is a sign of life. A tree that no longer gives of its fruit is devoid of life. Help us not to hoard your blessings for ourselves, but may we demonstrate the same generous, life-giving heart that you show us in Christ. Amen.
Song: Lord, I Did Not Choose You hymn text written by Joseph Condor, music and arrangement by Sojourn’s Rebecca Dennison and Jamie Barnes. This was our first time for “Lord, I Did Not Choose You,” a fitting hymn for this Sunday (the day we launched our sermon series on the Doctrines of Grace, entitled “Proof”).
Then our pastor preached the first sermon on “Proof,” entitled “Planned Grace.” You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com. Also, download our free “Proof — Planned Grace” six-day devotional here, in either PDF, Kindle or iPad-optimized format.
Song: I Sought The Lord an anonymously written text, arranged by Bifrost Arts. This was our Communion hymn of the week:
’twas not so much that I on Thee took hold,
As thou took hold on me.
Song: Thy Mercy My God written by John Stocker and Sandra McCracken. This is one of the longest-running songs in our Sojourn Gathered repertoire:
Thy mercy is more than a match for my heart
Which wonders to feel its own hardness depart;
Dissolved by Thy goodness, I fall to the ground,
And weep to the praise of the mercy I’ve found.
Reading:
We know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Having chosen us, he called us to come to him. And having called us, he gave us right standing with himself. And having given us right standing, he gave us His glory. – Based on Romans 8:28-30
Song: Great and Mighty written by Aaron Senseman and Cliff Young of Caedmon’s Call. This was our song for the Sending:
So in You I will rejoice,
Make my life an offering,
I’m enraptured by the mercies of my king
And I will sing
Benediction:
As God’s chosen people, go in renewed faith and assurance of hope. Peace be with you.
