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 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 from Sojourn’s Midtown campus, courtesy Chuck Heeke.
Call to Worship:
It’s the first Sunday in Advent: a season when the church celebrates and anticipates
the coming of Jesus at Christmas.
The Christmas season is mostly celebrated as a joyful, happy occasion (and for good
reason!) But it’s also a good season to remember the longing, the desperation, and the
darkness in which the world awaited its coming Savior, and even now awaits his
return.
Each week, we’ll light a candle on this wreath as a sign of the coming light of Christ,
the hope that breaks apart the darkness and rescues the world.
Hear the word of the Lord:
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.
The Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a
son, and will call him Immanuel, which means “God is With Us.”
-Based on Isaiah 9:2 and 7:14
Song: O Come, O Come Emmanuel. Hear it in full on our brand new Christmas album, A Child Is Born, here.
Song: Veiled In Darkness, text by Douglas Rights, music and arrangement by Jamie Barnes.
Prayer:
Lord God, we praise you for sending light into this world.
We confess that we live as though the light had never defeated darkness.
We confess that we ignore the Savior you sent to be among us and to live in us.
We’ve kept the birth of your Son confined to the Christmas season and do not yearn
for his coming each moment in our waiting hearts.
Forgive us for not opening our eyes to Jesus.
Prepare us for His return. Help us rejoice in the light so that your grace can
illuminate the darkened places of our hearts.
Amen.
Assurance/Peace
The day will come,” says the Lord, “when I will do for Israel and Judah all the good things I have promised them. In those days and at that time I will raise up a righteous descendant from King David’s line. He will do what is just and right throughout the land. In that day My people will be saved and will live in peace. And this will be its name: ‘The Lord Is Our Righteousness.’”
Jesus Christ, our Lord,
whose coming we announce in this season, is our righteousness.
In Christ, we are made right with God! – Based on Jeremiah 33: 14-16
Christ has brought peace to His people, so let us share peace with each other as we
welcome those around us.
Then our pastor preached a sermon on Family Lines from our Genesis sermon series (Genesis 4:25-5:32). You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com.
Song: Holy, Holy, Holy – our Communion Hymn for the week.
Reading:
Isaiah the prophet was given this vision of the coming of Christ and the peace He
would bring:
In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s house will be the highest of all—
the most important place on earth.
It will be raised above the other hills, and people from all over the world will stream
there to worship. People from many nations will come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of Jacob’s God.
There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.”
For the Lord’s teaching will go out from Zion; his word will go out from Jerusalem.
The Lord will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes.
They will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning
hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore.
– Isaiah 2:1-5
Come people of the Lord, let us rejoice and walk in the light of the Lord!
Song: Hark The Herald Angels Sing by Charles Wesley. Hear it in full here, from our A Child Is Born.
Song: Let the Seventh Angel by East Campus Worship Pastor Jamie Barnes. Hear it in full here, from our album The Water And The Blood.
Benediction:
May the Lord of Peace strengthen you in faith and hope as we
anticipate His return. Go now in the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
Peace be you.
Feeling behind. Everyone, it seems, over at The Worship Community had advent songs in their sets last week. We were finishing up a series, and Christmas hymns just didn’t seem to work.