Worship This Sunday

As I am preparing for worship this Sunday, I thought I would let you in on what I am thinking as I plan the worship service. My prayer is also that as you read this you will prayerfully prepare yourself for the worship of our Lord this week, contemplating the different elements of worship and how they are designed to draw you into a conversation with God.

We always start with a few minutes to prepare our hearts for worship. This week we are using part of a prayer from "The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers." The prayer is an acknowledgement of our sinfulness and ends with the line: "Keep me always clinging to thy cross!" Let that be your prayer as you enter worship this Sunday and everyday!

The Call To Worship is a Scriptural invitation from God Himself to come and worship Him. This week our Call is from Isaiah 55:1. It is especially relevant this week as God reminds us on Communion Sunday that it is not those who have worldly wealth who come to the table to purchase salvation. The ones who find fulfillment at the Lord's Table are those who have already been purchased by Christ at the cross.

The Hymns and Praise Songs help us relive the story of our salvation. This week we sing "Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" being reminded that it is God who invites us and that we are not worthy of His love. We will then sing a prayer: "Change My Heart, O God." That chorus is followed by another proclaiming the supernatural longing of a changed heart in "Come, Let Us Worship and Bow Down."

Our Confession of Faith this week comes from the first question of two different sources. The Westminster Shorter Catechism reminds us that are chief end is to "glorify God and enjoy Him forever" and the Heidelberg Catechism reminds us that our only hope in life and death is that we belong in all our being to Jesus Christ. We will follow our confession by confessing in song that Christ is the "Rock of Ages," the anchor for our hope at all times.

Our Pastoral Prayer this week will focus on confession as we prepare for Communion and we will also spend a few moments praying for Christians around the world that are being persecuted as this Sunday is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.

The Sermon this week is from Philippians 4:8-9 where we will see that we should be consumed with thinking about things that are true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent and praiseworthy. We will see that the one thing in the universe that fits that description is God. Our goal should be to have thoughts that never fall short of His glory. Of course we will see that we are to rely completely on His grace and mercy for acceptance and forgiveness when we fall short of this goal.

We will celebrate Communion together, feeding on Christ by faith and celebrating that Christ has taken our sins upon Himself and given us His righteousness!

We will end the service singing "Nothing But The Blood" where we express in song the truth that is contained in the sacrament -- that nothing outside of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our sins brings reconciliation between God and man.

The benediction that always closes our service is God's blessing to us from His Word as we depart to worship Him in all of life.

I look forward to seeing you in church this Sunday and hope that this helps you to grow in grace and to prepare for worship.

I love being your pastor.