Sojourn’s Liturgy Recap, January 5-6, 2013

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, 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 above by Chuck Heeke, from Sojourn Midtown.

Prelude: Jesus Savior Pilot Me

Call to Worship
Welcome! Each week we begin with a “call to worship” which is a reminder that God invites us into His presence and we respond to His greatness. Join with us as we unite our voices in song, lift our hands in worship and offer our best praise to the God who created us and loves us.  Let’s echo the words of the Psalmists:

Come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation.
Let us come to him with thanksgiving. Let us sing psalms of praise to him.
For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods.
He holds in his hands the depths of the earth and the mightiest mountains.
The sea belongs to him, for he made it. His hands formed the dry land, too.
Come, let us worship and bow down.
Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God.
We are the people he watches over, the flock under his care. – Psalm 95:1-7

Song: Compel My Heart to Sing by Sojourn’s Rebecca Elliott and Brooks Ritter, recorded on our The Water And The Blood: The Hymns Of Isaac Watts, Volume Two album.

Prayer of Confession:
Our sinful hearts often block out God’s voice or we live in doubt of His promises. Pray with me as we confess our sins:

Almighty and merciful God,
We have sinned and strayed from your ways like lost sheep.
We have followed the desires of our own hearts.
We have broken your commandments.
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done;
and we have done those things which we ought not to have done.
Have mercy upon us, O Lord.
Heal, forgive and restore us as we embrace the promises declared to the world in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.

Let’s take a brief moment of silence to voice your own prayer to God, confessing your sin and asking for mercy in Jesus name. (Silence)

Song: Lead Us Back written by me (Bobby Gilles) and Brooks Ritter, recorded on our Before The Throne album.

Words of Assurance: As we examine our sin, we look to the cross of Jesus where we find forgiveness and hope. Hear the word of the Lord:

You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins. He canceled the record of the charges against us and took it away by nailing it to the cross. – Colossians 2:13-14

Song: The Power of the Cross, the Getty-Townend hymn we recorded on our new record Come Ye Sinners: Sojourn Music Live At Memorial Auditorium.

Passing of Peace: God has welcomed us. Likewise, we welcome each other when we gather. Let’s use this time to move around the room, meet someone new and extend peace to one another.

Giving

Then our preacher taught the first sermon in a six week series on the Book of Ecclesiastes. You can hear Sojourn sermons in theSojourn Church iTunes podcast or in the Sermon Resource library at sojournchurch.com.

Song: Alas and Did my Savior Bleed
Song: 10,000 Reasons

Reading:
Friends, let’s remember the new life God has granted us in Christ Jesus:

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For we died to this life, and our real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is our life, is revealed to the whole world, we will share in all his glory.
- Based on Colossians 3:1-4

Amen! His righteousness is our only plea before God. Let’s sing out that plea together!

Song: Approach My Soul, the Mercy Seat written by Jamie Barnes. This is another song from our new live album. You can also hear a studio version, on our double-EP The Mercy Seat/The War.

Benediction:
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace. Peace be with you.