Sunday mornings are a time we set aside in our week to gather as the body of Christ. We are walked through the Liturgy, where we participate in the unfolding story of the Gospel. We sing songs of praise, confession, lament, and thanksgiving, raising one voice to our King. We humbly sit under the reading and preaching of God’s Word for our formation and transformation through His Spirit. All things culminate in the receiving of bread and wine in communion, where the tangible means of God’s grace to us in Christ Jesus is realized and taken in. We petition God to be with us in a final prayer and song of response to His word, and are sent out with the blessing of a Benediction to go and live lives of worship throughout the rest of our week. This is what this past Sunday’s worship gathering looked like:

Opening Song: “O Taste and See”

CALL TO WORSHIP
Hear the call to worship from Isaiah 55 ...

“Come, everyone who thirsts,
Come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
Come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
Without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
And your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourselves in rich food

Incline your ear, and come to me;
Hear, that your soul may live…
“Seek the Lord while he may be found;
Call upon him while he is near;
Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him,
And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
Neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are my ways higher than your ways
And my thoughts than your thoughts.

Song: “Glorious Day”

CONFESSION OF SIN

Let us confess our sins to the Father together…

All-seeing God, We confess our sinful response to the trials and discomforts of our lives. While in the depths of woe, we have resented our need for you, and rarely lift our eyes to you, the only one who can bring us true help. We have directed our gaze to earthly things that falsely promise escape and comfort. We are deeply grateful that Jesus never stopped trusting you, even when you did not allow the cup of condemnation, that we deserve, to pass from him. Loving God, soften our hearts to delight in your love for us. Change us into sons and daughters who are so enraptured with the story of the Gospel, that we run to our beautiful Savior as we experience suffering in this life. Lift our eyes to the cross, where our help comes from, the place where our lives were saved by Jesus’ death. Amen.

ABSOLUTION

Hear the good news...

Jesus Christ has offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins. By this offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. As God promised: “I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds; I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Song: “Love Shines”

PROFESSION OF FAITH: MSA Catechism Q. 42 - 43

Let us profess our faith together by answering the following questions from the Morning Star Catechism...

L: Q42 -Who will be saved?

C: A - Only those who repent of sin and believe in Christ.

L & C: “The time has come,” he said. “The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” - Mark 1:15

L & C: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life - John 3:16

L: Q43 -What is it to repent?

C: A - To be sorry for sin, and turn from it..

L & C: “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. - 2 Corinthians 7:10

Song: “I Love You Lord”

Sermon: “A Rest That Satisfies” with Pastor Justin Dean

Communion

LITURGICAL PRAYER

Please Stand and let us pray to our Father together...

O God, the King of Glory, who has exalted Your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph unto Your Kingdom in heaven, we ask that You not leave us comfortless, but send us Your Holy Spirit to comfort us, and raise us to the same heavenly places where our Savior Christ has gone before, and who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen.

Song of Response

BENEDICTION

As we leave here today…

May the Lord, who longs to be gracious to you, Who waits on high to have compassion on you, Plant you firmly in the faith, established, steadfast, and unmovable, Through the hope of the gospel, proclaimed to all the creation under heaven. L: Peace be with you! C: And also with you!