Today's Music
So Will I - Hillsong Worship
The Water And The Blood - Sojourn Music
Solid Rock- Midtown Worship
Indescribable - Chris Tomlin
Today's Liturgy
Call to Worship
We worship you, Lord of heaven, with our mouths,
for from your speech you made all of creation.
Holy Trinity, you live in perfect serenity, always possessing all you need.
Yet still you beckoned creation into being with your powerful Word.
You published your grace in the fashioning stars down to the molecules that hold all things together.
You wove threads of grace and blessing into the fabric of the universe.
Your love fills the spaces between our atoms.
Your breath fills our lungs.
And so with every breath, we praise you Lord our God, the Maker of all.
The universe still echoes with your resounding proclamations:
“Good. . . Good. . . Good”
And we, your creatures, sing back to you this morning calling you,
“Good. . . Good. . . Good”
–Inspired by Gen 1; Col 1:16-17; Rev 4:11
Amen church, let’s sing to our Creator this morning.
Confession
Amen church - The Lord our God is our creator and our savior. Let us come before his grace and kindness with repentance. Read with me a paraphrase from James 3 as our prayer this morning.
Just as a small rudder steers a great ship so our words are powerful instruments.
Humanity has tamed every kind of creature— beasts, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures— yet none of us have tamed our tongues.
With the same mouth we sing praises to God and curse our brothers and sisters who are made in God’s image.
This should not be so.
No spring produces both fresh and salt water and no tree produces two kinds of fruit.
Forgive us, Lord, for the way we’ve used our words to cut your image bearers down instead of building them up.
Teach us, Lord of life, to use our words as instruments of goodness
and life instead of wickedness and death. Amen.
–From James 3:1-12
Assurance
We place our hope in the God whose words called creation out of the void in the beginning.
As rain and snow fall to the earth, watering it and making it bear fruit,
so the Word of the Lord comes down with power: never wasted, never forgotten, always accomplishing His perfect will.
–From Isaiah 55:10–11
We place our hope in the Word of God which will remain even when all things pass away.
God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.
It is living, active, and sharper than any sword,
revealing truth, cutting through lies, and leading us in life everlasting.
–From Psalm 119:105; Hebrews 4:12
We place our hope in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, who dwelt among us and died on our behalf.
God stepped into His own creation, not with power to conquer, but with mercy to save.
Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
–From John 1:14; 1 Peter 2:24