Call To Worship: Angels Long To Look Into These Things (1 Peter 1:8-12)

Call To Worship: 1 Peter 1:8-12

L1: Even angels long to look into these things.

L2: The prophets searched intently and with the greatest care,

L1: To find out the time and circumstances of the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow.

L2: It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you,

C: Though we have not seen him, we love him;

L1: And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him

L2: And are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,

C: For we are receiving the end result of our faith, the salvation of our souls.

L1: In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade.

L1; This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

C: In all this we greatly rejoice, though now for a little while we may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

L1: Even angels long to look into these things.

L2: The prophets searched intently and with the greatest care,

Call to Worship: What More Could God Give? (Romans 8:31-37)

Call to Worship: What More Could God Give? 

L: What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

C: He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all

L: How will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen?

C: It is God who justifies.

L: Who then is the one who condemns?

C: No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

L: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

C: No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.

Call to Worship: The King of Glory (Psalm 24:1-2, 7-10)

Call to Worship: Psalm 24:1-2, 7-10

ALL: The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas. and established it upon the rivers.

L1: Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

L2: Who is this King of glory?

C: The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle!

L1: Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

L2: Who is this King of glory?

C: The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory!

Call to Worship: Resurrected Senses (1 Cor. 2:9-12)

Call to Worship: Listening in the Spirit

L: Lord, we come as your people this morning. You have created in us new life in your son, Jesus by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit.

C: Lord, we grew and matured, were taught and trained, to taste, smell, feel, see and hear to many wonderful things, but they were not you. It is our habit to notice these, so that when you speak now, in our new life, your words are easily overlooked and drowned out. Worse, we often desired it so. Forgive us.

L: We cannot express the connection we now have in you. "Taste and see that the Lord is good"? We lack the vocabulary.  “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. (1 Cor. 2: 9-10)

C: Lord, you have placed us in Christ--united with him and granted fellowship with the Father, Son and Spirit. "For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us." (1 Cor 2:11-12)

A: Lord, you have brought us back into life and communion with you. You deserve credit for it all as we see in the character, works and reputation of the Messiah, Jesus. Amen.

Call to Worship: God's Chosen People (Colossians 3:12-17)

Call to Worship: God's Chosen People

L1: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

L2: Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

C:  Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

L1: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

L2: Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

C: Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Amen

Call to Worship: May None of God's Works Keep Silent

From a 3rd century Christian prayer found written on shards of pottery, discovered in Oxyrhynchus in Egypt:

May none of God's wonderful works keep silence, night or morning.
Bright stars, high mountains, the depths of the seas, sources of rushing rivers-
May all of these break into song as we sing to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
May all the angels in the heavens reply: Amen! Amen! Amen!
Power, praise, honor, eternal glory to God, the only Giver of grace.
Amen! Amen! Amen!

- A. Hamman, ed. Early Christian Prayers (Chicago: Henry Regnery, 1961), p. 69 as cited in M. Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Baker Academin, 2012), p. 39

Call to Worship: Shout for Joy (Psalm 66:1-9, 16-20)

Call to Worship (Psalm 66)

C: Shout for joy to God, all the earth! Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious. Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies cringe before you. All the earth bows down to you; they sing praise to you, they sing the praises of your name

L: Come and see what God has done, his awesome deeds for mankind! He turned the sea into dry land, they passed through the waters on foot—come, let us rejoice in him.

C: He rules forever by his power, his eyes watch the nations—let not the rebellious rise up against him. Praise our God, all peoples, let the sound of his praise be heard; he has preserved our lives and kept our feet from slipping.

L: Come and hear, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart,  the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and has heard my prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Call to Worship: God of Genius (Proverbs 25:2)

Call To Worship: God of Genius (Prov. 25:2)

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. - Proverbs 25:2

Our God, you are the genius in the room. You did not wake up this morning, surprised, and say, "I wish I'd thought of that." You are not stumped. You, whose words sparked the galaxies, orbited electrons around a nucleus, bloomed fields of flowers and animated every human heart, are full of ideas.

Our God, you lead us in a life of discovery as you beckon us from the other side of today, saying, "Come and see! Come and see! Isn't this amazing?" You know the end from the beginning, you know the answer before the question, you know the solution before the problem, you know the house before the plans or foundation, you know the feast before the grape is planted and the grain is sown and you know us.

Our God, yes, you know us. Fragile as we are, we cannot know it all, yet you grant us the portion that we need at the right time-for hope and not despair. We search you out and we find that you are good, and you are strong, and you care.

Amen.

Alternate ending:

Lord forgive us when we get consumed by the things of this world that fight for our love and our passion. As our eyes are open wide and on you, grant us the privilege of your world view, and may your kingdom be what wakes us up and lays us down.[1]


[1] Lose My Soul, tobyMac (Portable Sounds, 2007), Toby McKeehan, Christopher Stevens, Michael Ripoll

Call to Worship: Purpose (Jeremiah 29:4,7,11-14a)

L: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:

C: Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

L: For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

C: Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

A:  I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity

Call To Worship: The Potter and The Clay (Isaiah 29)

The Potter and the Clay

L: Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made. (Isaiah 43:6-7)

C: We turn things upside down, as if the potter were thought to be like the clay! Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, “You did not make me”? Can the pot say to the potter, “You know nothing” (Isaiah 29:16)

L: It is the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person (Zechariah 12:1b)

C: We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. (2 Corinthians 4:7)

A: Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Amen. (Isaiah 64:8)

Call to Worship: The Mind of the Lord (Romans 11:33-36)

The Mind of the Lord (Romans 11:33-36)

L: Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!

C: How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

L: “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”

C: “Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?”

L: For from him and through him and for him are all things. 

A: To him be the glory forever! Amen.

Call to Worship: Humility (Philippians 2)

Humility (Philippians 2)

L1: In your relationships
L2: In my relationships
C: In our relationships, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

L1: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

L2: Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.

C: And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross!

L1: Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every
name,

L2: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

C: And every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

ALL: To the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Call to Worship: Psalm 86:8-13

Psalm 86:8-13 (NIV)

L: Among the gods there is none like you, Lord; no deeds can compare with yours. All the nations you have made will come and worship before you, Lord; they will bring glory to your name.

C: For you are great and do marvelous deeds; you alone are God.

L: Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

C: I will praise you, Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever.

A: For great is your love toward me; you have delivered me from the depths, from the realm of the dead.

Call To Worship: We Are Listening (Eph. 1:18-19b, Col. 3:1-3)

We Are Listening – Ephesians 1:18-19b, Colossians 3:1-3

L: Lord, you are not silent.

C: Lord, we are listening.

L: Lord, we confess. We do not always hear. We do not always see. Worse, we do not always want to. We are disappointingly content with a heaven-less kingdom.

C: Open the eyes of our hearts, Lord, that we may know and want to know the hope to which you have called us-the glorious inheritance of your holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

L: He raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms.

C: We have been raised with Christ, set our hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

L: God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way

C: Set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. For we died, and our life is now hidden with Christ in God.

L: Lord, you are not silent.

A: Lord, we are listening. Amen.