Call to Worship - Losing Worship (1 Corinthians 1:26-29,31)

 

Call to Worship – Losing Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:26-29,31

L1:     Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called.

L2:     Not many of you were wise by human standards;

L1:     Not many were influential;

L2:     Not many were of noble birth.

ALL: But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

L1:     God chose the lowly things of this world

L2:     And the despised things—

L1:     And the things that are considered nothing—

L2:     To nullify the things that the world considers important,

ALL:  So that no one may boast before him. ... Therefore, as it is written: “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Call to Worship - Proverbs of the People (1 Cor. 12:8, Eccl. 12:11, Col. 3:16)

 

Call to Worship – Proverbs of the People

1 Cor. 12:8, Eccl. 12:11, Col. 3:16

 

L1:     To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice

L2:     To another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge (1 Cor. 12:8)

L1:     The words of the wise are like goads,

L2:     Their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one shepherd (Eccl. 12:11)

L1:     Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives.

L2:     Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives.

ALL: Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. (Col. 3:16 NLT)

Call to Worship: Psalm 121

LEADER: I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

GROUP 1: He will not let your foot slip—he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.

GROUP 2: The Lord watches over you—the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.

GROUP 3: The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.

Call to Worship: Stars in the Sky (Psalm 147:4)

C: He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!

L1: Are there really names for a billion billion stars, O Lord? And yet you know each one. 

L2: Who are you and what are you like, that you can truly see 8 thousand thousand thousand people? The one God, yet fully present with each one, able to answer each who calls out to "you".

L1: The macro and micro, the big picture and tiniest detail, the swirl of the stars in the sky and the orbits of electrons flickering through quantum possibilities...you are there. The ebb and flow of nations, the crush of a crowded subway, the hidden tears of joy and sorrow...you are there.

L2: For in Jesus all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 

C: He counts the stars and calls them all by name. How great is our Lord! His power is absolute! His understanding is beyond comprehension!

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: 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.