Worship Notes for Sunday, November 13, 2011
We continue this morning with our theme of longing after God—for the innate desire to return to the blessings and benefits before the Fall. We find the promise of this restoration and rest in the hope of the New Heavens and the New Earth. The Call to Worship from Psalm 107 tells of the steadfast love of the Lord in delivering us from wandering in the desert wastes where we were hungry and thirsty, but “He satisfies the longing soul.” Our response in song is from Psalm 146, Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah. We continue by singing Psalm 138, With Grateful Hearts—“Through trouble though my path may be, though wilt retrieve and strengthen me.”The Scripture Readings are from Genesis 2 and Matthew 11 where we read of God as the creator of rest—both physically and for our souls. The Prayer of Confession from Ephesians 4 confesses our neglect of the graces that God has given as well as our propensity for trying to build our own kingdom instead of longing for and submitting ourselves to God’s Kingdom. We then sing Jesus, I am Resting, Resting and the joy of who He is and the need and longing to just give up all our futile strivings and turn our struggling and burdens over to the rest and goodness of the Lord.
For Communion Hymns, we begin with Psalm 32: Blest is the Man and the peace that comes from confession, and we continue with Jesus, Shepherd of Thy People and hope of Christ leading us through this desert land to the heavenly Zion where there is rest. We continue with a similar theme in our final hymn, Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken. We sing of the sweeter rest that heaven will bring as we lay down all our foolish ambitions and hopes in exchange for taking up the beautiful cross of Christ. The final response is from The Church’s One Foundation and the ultimate longing and waiting “of peace forevermore” when the “great Church victorious shall be the Church at rest.”
