I hope the service preview helps you and your family prepare for corporate worship service this coming Sunday. One of my favorite writers is Paul Tripp. In his devotional book New Morning Mercies, he reminds his readers of the graces experienced in corporate worship. He says:
“Corporate worship is a regular, gracious reminder that [corporate worship] is not about you. You’ve been born into a life that is a celebration of another . . . We gather together to celebrate the One who created, controls, and sits at the center of all things. Every biblical worship service is guided and shaped by the words of Romans 11:33-36: ‘Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.’ So corporate worship calls us back again and again to remember and to celebrate. It calls us to remember that all that exists, including us, is from God, exists through him, and points to him . . . His will is preeminent and will be done. His kingdom will come. Grace decimates our lordship and causes us to bow to the one true Lord. It is only by grace that we celebrate a lordship other than our own. Corporate worship points us to our need for and the availability of that grace. (December 3 reading)”
The songs we will sing this Sunday, the sermon text, and a Scriptural blessing are linked below. It is my prayer that our corporate gathering will be centered on the supremacy of our Savior and that the upshot of the service will be spiritual formation so that we grow in our own discipleship. It is also my prayer that the grace of the gospel seen and experienced in our corporate gathering will shape us in such a way that it sends us out to be disciple-makers.
Grace To You!
Pastor Michael
The Sermon Text and Title:
Colossians 1:5-8: The Great Work of the Gospel: Discipleship
Call to Worship Song:
Songs of Assurance and Peace:
Song of Thanksgiving:
Song for Sending us Out:
A Blessing to Send us Out:
May you walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy; giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. Amen (Adapted: Col 1:10–12)