Worship Notes for Sunday, March 25, 2012
In Luke 5, Jesus calls his disciples to come, leave everything, and follow him. It is this call of the kingdom that we will follow in our Scripture and singing this morning. We begin with the Call to Worship from Psalm 33 in which we read that God has chosen a people as his heritage. Our opening hymn is Lead on, O King Eternal for we follow with the cross over us in deeds of love and mercy.The Prayer of Confession is from I Peter 2 in which we confess that we are “prone to malice, and deceit, hypocrisy, envy and slander” but God has chosen us as his own possession. We are now his people. The Assurance from Colossians 3 reminds us that we are God’s chosen ones, “holy and beloved” and forgiven by the Lord. We continue by singing Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken which includes the line “all to leave and follow thee…perish every fond ambition” and “let the world despise and leave me, they have left my Savior too.”
The first Communion Hymn is I will Go that is a prayer for the Spirit to work in our hearts to follow the call of the Gospel as a servant—no matter where it takes us. The second hymn is There is No Sin which provides a clear picture of the efficacy of the blood of Christ in covering all of our sins.
Our concluding hymn is the Easter carol Christ is Risen! Hallelujah! in preparation for our worship on Easter Sunday morning. The Benediction Response is verse 11 from O Thou in Whose Presence—“Dear Shepherd, I hear and will follow Thy call.”
