Worship Notes for Sunday, November 17, 2013

We continue this morning in the passage from Luke 14 in which Jesus talks about humility of position as well as the generous heart of God in inviting us to His feast as the crippled, poor, blind and lame. We begin with the Call to Worship from Psalm 100 and the necessity of gratitude that puts into perspective our need and desire to serve Him with gladness. We continue by singing Praise to the Lord for all of His wondrous acts towards sinners: He is our health and salvation, He sustains and guides, He brings relief and shelters. In the singing of Awake My Zeal, Awake My Love, we pray for the love of God to so fill us that we see those around us as He would see them and then respond in service.The Old Testament Reading from Isaiah 25 reminds us that God is drawing together His people from the four corners of the earth to the great Marriage Feast of the Lamb where death is swallowed up forever. The Prayer of Confession from Romans 16 moves us to confess the ways in which we try to soften or reinterpret the commands of Christ. The Assurance of Pardon, from Matthew 20 and I Peter 1, sets before us the example of Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, serving us and laying His life down for us.

Christ as the Way and the Feast become the themes of our Communion Hymns—Come, My Way, My Truth My Life and Bread of Heaven. The final hymn and Benediction response come from How Sweet and Awesome which is a beautiful lyric rendering of the sermon text—Why are we a guest to this banquet that we do not deserve? It is because of Love that drew us in and prepared a place for us at the table.

http://www.cornerstonepresfranklin.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Cornerstone-Bulletin-11.17.13.pdf