Call to Worship
Our covenant God has called us to worship
not because God needs our adoration,
but because God wants to spend time with us—
to meet with us,
to speak with us,
to challenge us,
to transform us,
to comfort us,
to love us.
And we come
because God is worthy of all our praise
and because we want to be with God,
to meet with God,
to listen to God,
to talk to God,
to be challenged,
to be changed,
to be comforted,
to be loved.
God’s Greeting
Our covenant God welcomes us with these words:
“Grace and peace to you
from God our Father
and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”
—Romans 1:7, New International Version (NIV)
Opening Song
[Choose one of the following:]
“Come, All You People, Praise Our God” Gabriel
“We Praise You, O God” Valerius
“Take Over” Velez et al.
“Come, People of the Risen King” Getty et al.
Opening Prayer based on Psalm 85:1–3
God, lover of justice
and giver of all good things,
we come with praise on our lips
for all you have done for us.
We come to praise you
for the blessings we have experienced in our lives—
especially for showing us mercy and grace
when we have turned away from you.
May these songs we sing
be an acceptable offering of praise to you.
Amen.
Songs of Praise
[Choose one or more of the following:]
“You Are Good” Houghton
“When I Think About the Lord” Huey
“Gratitude” Lake
“House of the Lord” Wickham, Smith
“There is No Higher Name” Schoolmeesters, Brymer
Call to Confession
Our just and glorious God is worthy of all our praise,
and yet we fall short
not only in failing to praise God when we ought,
but by speaking less than honoring words
and by thinking things that are less than God-honoring.
Our God is a God of justice,
yet we fail to live lives of justice.
We participate in unjust systems
and do little to set them right.
Our God is a God of mercy,
but we fail to show mercy to others.
So we come to God again,
asking for forgiveness,
seeking to put wrong to right,
dedicating ourselves to God once again,
and desiring to live lives of
love and faithfulness,
righteousness and peace.
“Come Let Us Return to the Lord” Papa et al.
Prayer of Confession Based on Psalm 85:4–7
Saving God, do it again!
We pray that you will restore us again
and that neither ourselves nor future generations
will experience your anger—
the result of our sin.
Send your Spirit to breathe new life into us
so that we might be revived yet again
and rejoice in our new found life.
We know we don’t deserve your grace,
yet we know that you are a God
who never stops loving and never gives up on us,
and so we ask you to save us.
Save us from our sin and the sin of this world.
Amen.
Words of Assurance Based on Psalm 85:8–13
Listen to the promises of our holy God:
God has covenanted with us
that all who are faithful will flourish.
God will not let us remain in our sin,
but, through Christ, all who believe will be saved.
More than that, God remains with us.
God is with us here, now, and forever!
Do you know what this means?
Regardless of how dismal life might seem at the moment,
despite the division, the anger, the fear, and evil we see around us,
despite the horrors of natural disasters,
we have hope.
For:
“Love and faithfulness meet together;
righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,
and righteousness looks down from heaven.
The Lord will indeed give what is good,
and our land will yield its harvest.
Righteousness goes before him
and prepares the way for his steps.”
—Psalm 85: 10–13, NIV
Song of Faith
[Choose one of the following:]
“Yet Not I But Through Christ in Me” Farren et al.
“Great is Thy Faithfulness” Chisholm