The Lord’s Day

March 22, 2009

 

My mouth will speak the praise of the Lord, and all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.

(Psalm 145:21)

 

 

Prelude

 

Apostolic Greeting

 

*Call to Worship                                                     Psalm 95:1–6

O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord,

Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.

Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving,

Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God

And a great King above all gods,

In whose hand are the depths of the earth,

The peaks of the mountains are His also.

The sea is His, for it was He who made it,

And His hands formed the dry land.

Come, let us worship and bow down,

Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.

 

*Gloria Patri                                                                      No. 734

 

*Prayer of Invocation

 

*Hymn                   I Sing the Mighty Power of God         No. 119

 

Public Confession

O God, Maker of heaven and earth, You are holy in all Your being and righteous in all Your ways. Your laws are true and just. Against You and You only have we sinned; we have done what is evil in Your sight. Hear these words, dear Father, and grant us repentance. Restore to us the joy of our salvation. Look on us with mercy for the sake of the One who gave Himself for us. Amen.

 

  Words of Comfort and Assurance                     Ephesians 2:4–7

But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

 

Response                         Lead Me, Lord          (following page)

Prayer for the Tithe and Offerings

 

Collection of the Tithe and Offerings

 

*Doxology                                                                          No. 731

 

*Declaring Our Faith[†]                                                     Creation

What do we believe about creation?

We believe that the Father created heaven and earth and all other creatures from nothing, when it seemed good to Him, by His Word—that is to say, by His Son.

What is the Son’s relationship to creation in the present?

Even now the Son sustains and governs creation, according to His eternal providence, and by His infinite power, that creation may serve man, in order that man may serve God.

 

Pastoral Prayer

 

*Responsive Reading                                              Psalm 33:1–12

Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;

Praise is becoming to the upright.

Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;

Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings. 

Sing to Him a new song;

Play skillfully with a shout of joy. 

For the word of the Lord is upright,

And all His work is done in faithfulness. 

He loves righteousness and justice;

The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord. 

By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,

And by the breath of His mouth all their host. 

He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;

He lays up the deeps in storehouses. 

Let all the earth fear the Lord;

Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. 

For He spoke, and it was done;

He commanded, and it stood fast. 

The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations;

He frustrates the plans of the peoples. 

The counsel of the Lord stands forever,

The plans of His heart from generation to generation. 

Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,

The people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance.

 

 

 

*Hymn                    Wondrous King, All-Glorious             No. 166

 

Public Reading of the Word                                           2 Peter 3

 

*Prayer for the Ministry of the Word

 

Sermon                  A Case of Spiritual Disorder    James 4:1–10

 

*Hymn          Thou Who Wast Rich beyond All Splendor   No. 230

 

Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper+

 

*Hymn                   Thy Works, Not Mine, O Christ            No. 524

 

*Benediction

 

*Threefold Amen                                                                 No. 740


* Congregation will please stand

+ Visitors: please see the note on the back of this bulletin

 



[†] Based on The Belgic Confession (edited for use in the worship bulletin)