Worship Notes for Sunday, October 7, 2012
As we finish the seventh chapter of Luke, we encounter another picture of the Kingdom that Christ brings—with the marks of repentance, forgiveness and love. We start with the Call to Worship from Psalm 145 and the glory of the Lord’s Kingdom that endures throughout all generations. We respond by singing Psalm 38: I Will Give You Thanks and Praise You and of the everlasting love that makes us whole. We continue with Come Ye Sinners and the declaration of the free gift of the Gospel to those who are “weary, heavy-laden, lost and ruined by the fall.”The Old Testament Reading from Isaiah 58 speaks of the true fast that God desires—to share bread with the hungry, house the homeless poor, and clothe the naked. The reality is that our discomfort with these commands often reveals our own spiritual inability to recognize ourselves as hungry, poor and helpless. We turn to Psalm 86 for our Prayer of Confession. We confess that we are poor and needy, and we look to the Lord to preserve and save us.
We sing of this coming Kingdom in our Psalm for October—Psalm 132: Arise, O Lord. The Lord will fulfill His Covenant and establish Messiah’s throne. For our Communion Hymns, we are singing two prayers of repentance and dependence: Holy Father, Hear My Cry and Rock of Ages. We conclude the service with Jesus, Shepherd and the prayer that He would lead us for we are “weak, and poor, and feeble.” God sends us out with the words of Crown Him With Many Crowns, Vs 7—for His wondrous name is Love.
