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 taken at Sojourn East, courtesy Troy Harvey.
Call to Worship:
Each week at Sojourn we begin our time together with a call to worship – which helps us understand that God speaks to us first and gathers us as His people. God extends grace to us in more ways than we understand, and we come together to celebrate his love and remember His promises to us. Hear His Word:
God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. -2 Timothy 1:9-10
Let’s sing out to our God with thankfulness for this undeserved gift of love!
Song: Compel My Heart To Sing written by Sojourn’s Rebecca Elliott and Brooks Ritter. We recorded this on our latest full length worship album, The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two. You can hear “Compel My Heart To Sing” in full here.
Prayer of Lament
Lord as we gather, celebrating your glory and goodness,
we acknowledge the shadow of today’s anniversary.
Together, we remember September 11th, 2001.
We mourn for the lives lost in New York City,
Washington D.C., and on Flight 93.
We lament death’s reign, the visible and invisible forces of evil,
the principalities and powers of this dark world,
and the evil that lurks in the hearts of all men… including our own.
With the Psalmist, we cry:
“How long, Oh Lord?
How long will your enemies scoff?
How long will you withhold your justice
from a world that’ is desperate to see it?”
We lament a world at war, and we ask you for peace
In Afghanistan
in Iraq
in Libya
in Israel and Palestine
in Egypt and Syria, and all of the nations of the earth that long for freedom from oppression.
We ask for protection over our loved ones and families who serve overseas,
We pray for the fatherless and the widow,
for the poor and oppressed.
We lift up our global leaders
that by your grace they might lead with wisdom and justice
and work for peace.
And we acknowledge that all such hopes and longings point us to one who will soon return and bring an everlasting peace and justice.
Together we proclaim:
Put not your trust in princes,
in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.
When his breath departs, he returns to the earth;
on that very day his plans perish.
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets the prisoners free;
the LORD opens the eyes of the blind.
The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down;
the LORD loves the righteous.
The LORD watches over the sojourners;
he upholds the widow and the fatherless,
but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the LORD! – (Psalm 146:2-10)
Amen, Come Lord Jesus.
Song: Death Has Lost Its Sting written by Rebecca Dennison and Pastor Mike Cosper, recorded on our The Water And The Blood album. Listen to “Death Has Lost Its Sting” in full here.
Song: In the Hours written by Helen L. Parmelee and our friend Kevin Twit, leader and founder of Indelible Grace.
You were hated and forsaken,
Bore the burden of the cross
Crowned with thorns, and mocked and smitten,
Counted earthly gain but loss
Assurance/Peace:
As God has given us peace through Christ, so let us extend peace to each other by welcoming those around us. Make an effort to meet someone new today!
Giving:
Oh, how great are God’s riches and wisdom and knowledge! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his ways! For who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to give him advice? And who has given him so much that He needs to pay it back? For everything comes from him and exists by his power and is intended for his glory. All glory to him forever! Amen. -Rom. 11:33-36
God, take what you’ve given us and use it for Your Kingdom, Your perfect plan, and Your glory. We pray that our tithes and offerings would be multiplied and used so that we can boast in Your power and grace alone. It’s in Jesus’ name that we pray. Amen.
Instrumental
Then our pastors preached the third sermon in our PROOF — Evidences Of God’s Grace sermon series. This time we learned about God’s “Outrageous Grace.” You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com. At our East Campus, Steve Timmis honored us by preaching the Outrageous Grace sermon. Timmis, pictured above, is co-founder of The Crowded House, an international group of church planting networks, and the co-director of the Porterbrook Network, an initiative that trains church planters. He’s also the director of Acts 29 in Western Europe and the co-author of Total Church.
Song: Rock Of Ages by Augustus Toplady. We used this as our Communion hymn of the week:
Be of sin the double cure; save from wrath, and make me pure
You can hear our version, arranged by Brooks Ritter, on Brooks’ EP The War. Listen to it here.
Reading:
When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned…But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ. -Romans 5: 11, 15-17
Song: Here is Love written by William Rees, Robert Lowry and Matt Redman.
On the mount of crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide,
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Song: Amazing Grace (originally titled “Faith’s Review and Expectation”) written by John Newton. This was our song for the Sending. Here is the little-used last verse (which we sang, along with the rest of the hymn):
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine,
But God, who called me here below
Will be forever mine
Benediction:
Go now, knowing that we are free from having to prove ourselves before God because of His outrageous grace–grace that only comes from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Peace be with you all.
