Worship Notes for Sunday, September 18, 2011
As we enter into our new sermon series, The Bible: The Story of God's Love, we are making a few seasonal adjustments in the service order of the bulletin. As you know, in the past we have changed the sung Introit or Creed or Responses to fit various thematic elements in the service or in the Church calendar. And we are making these adjustments as usual.We are also inserting a new element of Petitionary Prayer following the sermon that will allow us as a congregation to use God's Word to reflect upon and apply to our hearts the message of His Word. This creates another opportunity to pray the words of Scripture. These prayers end with the corporate response, “Lord, hear our prayer.” In addition, the Creed will now come before the Sermon to act as a reminder of those things we believe and hold to be true even as we hear God's Word read and expounded in the sermon.
By moving the placement of various service elements for a season, it allows us to see them afresh in a different setting. It also provides an opportunity to highlight them in our hearts and minds to avoid the possibility of vain repetition while still being rooted to significant and substantive truth as expressed in Scripture and throughout the history of the Church.
As we study the creative work of God, you will notice that theme woven into the liturgy in song and prayer with All Creatures of Our God and King, For the Beauty of the Earth, This is My Father’s World, and readings from Psalm 104, John 1, Genesis 1, Romans 1, Isaiah 60, Hebrews 1, and others. This morning, may our Creator God shine in our hearts “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 4:6).
