Song

Space for Sorrow

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Are we making space, and giving language for the varied experiences in our corporate gathering? Does our liturgy allow space for grief, lament, and naming our sorrows and longings before the Lord (Psalm 38:9)?

As author Clint Watkins says, “Biblical worship includes sorrow.”

If corporate worship is about the spiritual formation of the people of God whether our specific room is filled with people currently experiencing sorrow (we all one day will) we have a responsibility to help do the burden-bearing work of weeping with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn (Romans 12:15). When we make space for sorrow, lament, and grief we are giving people language, helping them now and later.

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4 August: Liturgy + Set List

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Our church is celebrating its tenth birthday this Sunday. We had normal morning services, along with a birthday celebration in the evening with some liturgical moments:

  • CREATOR/GLORIOUS DAY

    Call to Worship: Psalm 24:1-6

  • GREAT ARE YOU LORD

  • ABIDE

    Sermon: Psalm 145

    The Apostles’ Creed

    Baptism Affirmations

Trusting in the gracious mercy of God, do you turn from the ways of sin and renounce evil and its power in the world? I do.

Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept Him as your Lord and Savior, trusting in His grace and love? I do.

Will you be Christ’s faithful disciple, obeying His Word and showing His love? I will, with God’s help.

Baptisms

  • LIVING HOPE

Benediction

SUNDAY EVENING

  • Welcome & Prayer

Father, we are gathered here because we believe that we are called together into a work we cannot yet know the fullness of. Still, we trust the voice of the One who has called us.

And so we offer to you, O God, these things:

Our dreams, our plans, our vision.

Shape them as You will.

Our moments and our gifts.

May they be invested toward bright, eternal ends.

Richly bless the work before us, Father.

Shepherd us well lest we grow enamored of our own accomplishment or entrenched in old habit.

Instead let us listen for Your voice, our hearts ever open to the quieter beckonings of Your Spirit.

May our love and our labors now echo your love and your labors, O Lord.

O Spirit of God, now shape our hearts.

O Spirit of God, now guide our hands.

O Spirit of God, now build Your kingdom among us.

Amen.

Adapted from “A Liturgy for the Labors of Community”

Every Moment Holy, Douglas McKelvey

  • 10,000 Reasons

  • RAISE A HALLELUJAH/WAITING HERE FOR YOU/O PRAISE THE NAME/DOXOLOGY

    Sermon

    Celebration

19 May: Liturgy + Set List

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  • HOLY HOLY HOLY

    Call to Worship: Psalm 16

    One of the reasons we gather is to set the Lord before our eyes again. To be reminded that for all who are in Christ, our lives are held secure in His perfect life and work. Let’s sing about who he is and what he’s done:

  • THE SOLID ROCK

  • WHAT YOU SAID

    Scripture tells us that the foolishness of God is still wiser than the wisdom of man. God is good, but sometimes it does not feel like He is good. Because He is more than we could understand. I think the disciples felt similarly as they saw the resurrected Jesus - don’t go, stay, we want to hold on to you! And Jesus says, it is better that I go, because when I go I will send to you a Helper - the Holy Spirit who will convict of sin, comfort you in your affliction, remind you what I have said, be the sign, seal, and guarantee of your salvation. This morning is Pentecost Sunday, where we remember and celebrate the sending of the Holy Spirit to indwell the life of every believer. We are going to take a minute now to thank God for His Spirit, I will read these words, and then together we will pray:

Almighty God, on this day, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, you revealed the way of eternal life to every race and nation:

Pour out this gift anew, that by the preaching of the Gospel your salvation may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

Pentecost Prayer, the Book of Common Prayer

Sermon: 1 Timothy 3:1-13

  • ABIDE

  • HOLY IS OUR GOD

Benediction

Resurrection Sunday: Liturgy + Set List

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  • FOREVER NOW A CROWN

    Call to Worship: 10th Presbyterian Church Call to Worship

  • CHRIST THE LORD IS RISEN TODAY

  • LAMB OF GOD

    Let’s confess what we celebrate as followers of Jesus. I will read the parts marked ‘Leader,’ together we’ll read the parts marked ‘All’:

    LEADER: Alleluia! Christ is risen.


    ALL: He is risen indeed. Alleluia!


    LEADER: Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

    ALL: He has given us new life and hope.
 He has raised Jesus from the dead.


    LEADER: God has claimed us as his own.


    ALL: He has brought us out of darkness.
 He has made us light to the world.


    LEADER: Alleluia! Christ is risen.

    ALL: He is risen indeed. Alleluia! 


    —based on 1 Peter 1:3-5, the Worship Sourcebook

    Sermon: Hebrews 2:14-18

    If God in Christ had never stepped down from heaven, laying aside his glory, taken on his flesh and blood, lived the perfect life, died the death we deserve, become our sin, if none of those things had ever happened, God would still be worthy of our worship, adoration, and obedience. How much more, as followers of Jesus should we respond with worship, adoration, and obedience in light of the propitiation of Christ? We’re going to respond now as we sing about how Jesus is, what He has done, and who He has called us to be. Would you stand if you’re able…

  • THANK YOU JESUS FOR THE BLOOD

  • NO BODY

    Benediction

30 January: Tuesday Refocus

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‘God with us:’ this is hell’s terror, the sufferers comfort, eternity’s sonnet, heaven’s hallelujah, the shout of the glorified.’ - Spurgeon

During the Advent season, we sing of Emmanuel, God with us. God with us in the straw and swaddling clothes is the beginning of God with us in the tomb and grave clothes. Because the aim of Christmas is ultimately the cross and resurrection. In Christ, “…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Philippians 2:6-8

This is the mystery into which angels long to look (1 Peter 1:12), this is the new and eternal song of heaven (Revelation 5:9-14): that God is with man so that that man might be with God again.

Jesus, you are God with us so that we might be with God - thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen.

Amen and amen,

AB

24 December: Liturgy + Set List

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  • WONDER AND GIFT

  • O COME LET US ADORE HIM

  • O COME O COME EMMANUEL

    If you have been with us this Advent season you know that we have been looking at the mothers of Jesus - women in the genealogy of Jesus. And we have said throughout this series, ‘The kind of people Jesus came from reveals the kind of people Jesus came for.’ And what Scripture tells us is that Christ came to win for Himself, to purchase with His blood, a bride made up of people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and language on the earth. This is part of what the angels say to the shepherds, ‘This is good news of great joy which will be for all the people.’ And this morning we get to hear some of our people - who call Life Church home - read us the story of this good news in a few of the languages representing the people Jesus came for:

    Luke 2:1-7 (in Spanish), Luke 2:8-13 (in Vietnamese), Luke 2:14-20 (in English)

  • COME THOU LONG-EXPECTED JESUS

    Sermon: 2 Samuel 11:1-27

    I love what the Psalmist says - even the darkness is not dark to you, for the night is as bright as the day. This is Jesus, the Light of the World illuminating the darkness of our sin, the darkness of our lives, the darkness of the world. Let’s sing about Him, and to Him, and to one another - would you stand if you’re able…

  • LIGHT OF THE WORLD (SING HALLELUJAH)

    Reading: John 1:9-18

    We light a candle to remember that Jesus is the Light of the World. And if you are here this morning as a follower of Jesus, you carry the very life and light of Christ in you and with you as you walk into a darkened world.

  • SILENT NIGHT (SON OF GOD, SON OF MAN)

  • O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL

10 December: Liturgy + Set List

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  • WONDER AND GIFT

  • LIGHT OF THE WORLD (SING HALLELUJAH)

  • HARK THE HERALD ANGELS SING

    Readings: Joshua 2:8-14, Matthew 1:1-6a

    Sermon: Joshua 2:1-24

    God is so good, so kind, so sovereign, that there is nothing - no sin, no brokenness - that can thwart or derail his plan and His purpose. And I hope that does not make us casual about our sin, but makes us draw near to the One who has first drawn near to us. That God’s kindness would lead us to continual repentance. Would you stand if you’re able, we’ll sing together…

  • ALL HAIL KING JESUS/JOY TO THE WORLD

  • CROWN HIM (CHRISTMAS)

19 November: Liturgy + Set List

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  • HOLY HOLY HOLY

    Call to Worship: Psalm 63:1-8

    God’s love is stronger than death, and better than life. That is reason to sing….

  • ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST

  • HOLY (JESUS YOU ARE)

    Sermon: Mark 12:28-34

    Scripture says ‘we love because He first loved us.’ You can only love to the degree you understand how deeply, truly, and completely you’ve been loved by God. You can only forgive to the degree you understand how deeply, truly, and completely you’ve been forgiven in Christ. You can only give of yourself to the degree to which you realize you have been given all things in Christ. Let’s sing about those truths together. Would you stand if you’re able…

  • FORGIVEN FOREVER

  • HOW DEEP THE FATHER’S LOVE FOR US

    Benediction

1 October: Liturgy + Set List

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  • REJOICE

    Call to Worship: Psalm 16:7-11

    If you are here this morning as a follower of Christ, the fullness of joy and eternal pleasures are not just a future promise but a present reality in and through Christ. And so we are here to once again set the Lord ever before our eyes. We’re going to introduce a new song this morning that gives us a clearer picture of who Jesus is and what He has done…

  • NO BODY

  • HYMN OF HEAVEN

    Sermon: Mark 10:17-31

    We started our morning with a call from the last verse of Psalm 16, I want you to hear the first verse of Psalm 16 as well:

  • Psalm 16:1-6

    If you are here as a follower of Christ, whether your life feels abundant or constricted - the boundary lines have fallen for your in pleasant places, and you have a beautiful inheritance - not an inheritance of earthly riches, but the inheritance of Jesus. Jesus is your inheritance. Let’s sing to him and about him…

  • GOODNESS OF GOD

  • BE THOU MY VISION

    Benediction

17 September: Liturgy + Set List

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  • GRAVES INTO GARDENS

    Call to Worship: Romans 11:33-12:2

    All we do is give back to God what always has been His. We live in response to the mercy and grace of God by offering our lives as an act of worship. Part of what we do as we gather is reorient our lives around responding to the mercy and grace of God. Let’s do that together as we sing:

  • ALL I HAVE IS CHRIST

  • HOLY IS OUR GOD

    Sermon: Mark 10:1-12

    Scripture says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Some of us have sin that is loud and obvious, all of us have sin that is subtle and subversive and deep in our hearts. As we continue in worship, we’re going to confess our sins to God and one another:

    Book of Common Prayer Corporate Confession

    Now that we have confessed our sins to God and one another, I want to give you a few moments of silence to consider and confess your own sins.

Brothers and sisters hear the good news: The Lord who loves you says in His word: Go and sin no more.

  • HOLY FOREVER

  • LAMB OF GOD

    Benediction