Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs: Sojourn’s Worship Liturgy, October 9, 2011

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 by Chuck Heeke at Sojourn Midtown.

Call To Worship:
Last week we learned that God provides for our every need. He has done that by giving to us what the world could never give, and that is Jesus Christ himself.  Whether you have much or little, remember that if you are Christian here today; then you have been given life!

Hear the word of the Lord:

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with 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 1:3-6

Let’s sing!

Song: Refuge written by Sojourn’s Neil Robins. You can hear “Refuge” in full from our Bandcamp page for Over The Grave: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume One.

Neil adapted “Psalm 31, Part 1″ by Isaac Watts for this great song. If you’re interested in songwriting, read my new post “How To Excavate Gems From Other Writers” here.

Confession:
Let’s pray…

Almighty God,
You have called us to be the church,
to continue the mission of Jesus Christ to our lost and confused world.
Yet we acknowledge we are more apathetic than active,
isolated than involved, callous than compassionate,
obstinate than obedient, legalistic than loving.
Gracious Lord, have mercy upon us and forgive our sins.
Remove the obstacles which prevent us from loving our neighbors.
By your Holy Spirit, continue to make us more like Your Son.
This we pray in Jesus’ powerful name. Amen.
-adapted from The Worship Sourcebook

Let’s continue to pray as we sing this song…

Song: Let Justice Roll Like River written by me (Bobby Gilles) and Rebecca Elliott. Sojourn hasn’t recorded this one yet, but we’ve been singing it live for about three years. It’s a modern hymn of confession, repentance and social justice:

Convict us Lord, we dance and laugh
Ignoring those who weep;
Correct us Lord, our golden calf
Has lulled our hearts to sleep
The gap between the rich and poor
Grows ever wider, shore to shore,
There’s racial hate, religious war,
And wolves among the sheep

Transitional Prayer
Lord, while we can’t help but see our weakness and failure, we can find hope in the unending mercy of Jesus. He saw us in our spiritual poverty, and had compassion, became one of us, and showered us with mercy. Because of him, though we’re spiritually poor, we’re rich in Christ. And because of his example, we can look upon those in need around us and know that we’re no different – just as needy, just as desperate, just as dependent. Thank you, Jesus, for your abundant mercy on our poor souls.

Song: Nothing Without You written by Bebo Norman. This is a confession of our complete dependence on Christ:

All my soul needs
Is all your love to cover me
So all the world will see
That I have nothing without you

Assurance/Peace:
Hear the truth about God’s faithful promise to keep watch and care over His creation:

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.
Psalm 36:5-9 (NIV)

God’s Word tells that He is faithful to His plan to love us more than we could have ever expected or imagined.  God’s love towards us should be our example; it leads us to love and care for one another.  Show this love in the way that you greet one another today.

Then our pastor preached the second sermon in our two-part series “God Gave.” You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com.

Song: Thy Mercy written by John Stocker and Sandra McCracken. This is one of my personal favorites, and it was our Communion hymn this week:

Great father of mercies, Thy goodness I own,
And the covenant love of Thy crucified Son;
All praise to the Spirit, whose whisper divine
Seals mercy, and pardon, and righteousness mine

Song: Let Your Glory Fall written by Matt Redman, a great song that tells a story and points us toward the truth that God’s goodness and love endures today.

Reading:
It’s Christ’s generosity towards sinner’s like you and I, that compels us to share the hope of the Gospel with a lost and dying world.  Hear Paul’s words to us today…

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
-2 Cor. 5:18-20

Song: City No Longer Forsaken written by Sojourn’s Jamie Barnes, which he recorded on The Mercy Seat EP, released early this year along with The War EP. We used this powerful song as our song for the Sending this week.

You can listen to “A City No Longer Forsaken” in full right here.

Benediction:

Jesus Christ, our Lord, is with you always. Go and share this good news in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Peace be with you all.