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 are courtesy of Chuck Heeke, from Sojourn New Albany.
Call to Worship
Welcome! When we gather each Sunday, we begin with a call to worship. A call to worship is an invitation to respond to our God, who has revealed himself to us in his Son and his Word. Let’s pray, sing, give, and meditate on God’s word with passion, boldness, and confidence. Hear the word of the Lord:
Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is you who made us, and we are yours;
we are your people, and the sheep of your pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
- Based on Psalm 100
Song: My Maker and My King written by Anne Steel and Pastor Mike Cosper. You can listen to this hymn of adoration in its entirety on our Before The Throne album page.
Confession:
Let’s pray-
Holy God, you have given us many good gifts.
We thank you for all of them, especially the gift of Jesus.
But we confess we often love the things we have more than we love you.
We confess our greed, our envy, and our sense of entitlement.
We deserve death because of our sin, but you freely give us life in Jesus.
Give us grace to live for you and not ourselves.
Make us more like your perfect Son, Jesus Christ.
May we lead lives of thankfulness, worshipping you and giving you our best praise.
Help us to love you more than everything else.
We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Song: Lead us Back written by me and Brooks Ritter, recorded on Before The Throne. Hear “Lead Us Back” and read about this modern hymn at My Song In The Night.
Assurance:
God gives us the greatest gift in His Son, Jesus. Hear His word:
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
-Romans 5:7-9
Song: Awake My Soul written by Sandra McCracken, recorded on her album The Builder and the Architect.
Passing of Peace
As family united by God, let’s take some time to greet each other here today.
Giving
Then our preacher preached a sermon on the parable of the Rich Fool from Luke 12:13-21. This was the first of our two-part “God Gave” sermon series. You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com.
Song: All I Have Is Yours, our communion hymn of the week, written by me and Rebecca Elliott. Hear “All I Have Is Yours” and read about this modern hymn at My Song In The Night.
Reading: (read over intro chords)
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:4-10
Song: O Church Arise, a contemporary hymn of dedication written by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty.
Song: Whom Have I in Heaven written by Isaac Watts and Sojourn’s Brooks Ritter and Rebecca Elliott, recorded on last year’s double-EP project The War/The Mercy Seat. You can listen to “Whom Have I In Heaven But You” in its entirety here.
Benediction:
May God, the giver of every good and perfect gift, grant you more grace to live for Him. Go in the name of the Father, the Son and The Holy Spirit. Peace be with you.
