Order of Worship – April 5 2020

Call to Worship:  Psalm 119:19-25

19 Open to me the gates of righteousness, that I may enter through them and give thanks to the Lord.
20 This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous shall enter through it.
21 I thank you that you have answered me and have become my salvation.
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.
23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.
27 The Lord is God, and he has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar!
28 You are my God, and I will give thanks to you; you are my God; I will extol you.
29 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever!

Prayer of Adoration:

Song: All Creatures of Our God and King (link)

Song: And Can It Be (link)

The Old Testament Lesson:  Isaiah 50:4-9

4 The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5 The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6 I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7 But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8 He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 9 Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

Prayer of Confession:

O King of Glory, we confess that our praise of Your majesty has often been faint, our performance as citizens of Your kingdom treasonous. For we have surrendered to the enemy by our secret and our known sins. For our treason You died, Lord Jesus. For our restoration, You rose again.  Draw us closer to You in this holy week, that our eyes may catch the vision of Your tears, and our hearts, the wonder of Your grace. By the Holy Spirit’s continuing discipline, let us be loyal and loving servants of the King. Praise be to You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Assurance of Pardon:  1 John 4:10

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

Song: O Help My Unbelief (link)

New Testament Lesson:  Philippians 2:5-11

5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Confession of Faith:  The Heidelberg Catechism 

Q.39. But why are you called a Christian?
A. Because by faith I am a member of Christ and so I share in his anointing. I am anointed to confess his name, to present myself to him as a living sacrifice of thanks to strive with a free conscience against sin and the devil in this life, and afterward to reign with Christ over all creation for eternity.

Scripture Reading and Prayer of Intercession for the Church: Acts 9:1-43 

The Sermon:A Better High Priest.” Hebrews 2:17-18.

Song: O Love That Will Not Let Me Go (link)

Closing Prayer: