Today's Music
You Keep In Getting Better - The Worship Initiative
Have Mercy - Sandra Mccracken
Son Of Suffering - Maverick City Music
The Blood Will Never Lose It’s Power - Andre Crouch
Jesus, What A Friend - Tasha Cobbs Leonard
Jesus Paid It All - Passion
Today's Liturgy
Call to Worship
God is our provider. He gives us all we need.
We don’t lack food, for our Father in heaven supplies us our daily bread.
We don’t lack relationships, for you, our triune God have given us brothers and fathers, sisters and mothers, spouses and friends, children and grandchildren.
And best of all, Lord, you have not withheld yourself from us but you dwell in our midst.
Like a master gardener you have cultivated our lives so that
we have everything we need to live a godly life.
You crown the year with your goodness; your carts overflow with plenty.
The wilderness pastures overflow, and the hills are robed with joy.
The pastures are clothed with flocks and the valleys covered with grain.
They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.
–Psalm 65:11-13
Confession
Lord you are the fount of every blessing.
Truly you have given us all we need to flourish, yet because of the sins we commit and the sins
committed against us, we often suffer seasons of famine and drought instead of seasons of plenty.
And like Adam and Eve we blame one another instead of taking responsibility.
Today we confess where we have lost the ability to be transparent
with each other and transparent before you.
Our disordered hearts breed disordered relationships, and so we repent:
For the friends we’ve ignored;
The spouses we’ve neglected;
The children we’ve spoken to in anger;
The parents we’ve dishonored;
The youth we’ve underestimated;
And the elderly we’ve forgotten.
Christ have mercy.
You call the church your body and your bride.
We are bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh.
But all too often, we create division in this body.
We tear ourselves apart.
Forgive us, Lord, and show us a better way.
Amen.
Assurance
We place our hope in Jesus, who once prayed this anguished prayer to his Father in the garden of Gethsemane:
“not my will, but yours, be done” (Luke 22:42).
Unlike Adam and Eve, Christ didn’t try to shift blame away from himself
but took all the blame that belonged to us and placed it on himself.
Brothers and sisters, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising its shame.
He didn’t merely give us a clean slate but made us friends of God.
God has the power to turn sinners into saints and make friends out of enemies.
We have an otherworldly peace because of what our risen Lord accomplished.
We have peace with God and peace to give to one another.