Welcome to the Sunday Gathering recap (songs, hymns, liturgy and sermon). This blog gives you an opportunity to reflect on what you heard in the gathering or catch up if you weren’t able to be with us.
*The indented sections are responses read aloud by the congregation during the Gathering
JAMES - True Faith & Oppression
CALL TO WORSHIP
Praise the Lord, my soul. I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
He is the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them he remains faithful for ever. He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free, the Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous.
The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
The Lord reigns for ever, for all generations. Praise the Lord.
Based on Psalm 146
Song: Look What God Has Done
Song: Jesus
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
We've already heard that our God is a God who cares for those in need, who feeds the hungry and upholds the cause of the oppressed. Yet we can be so ignorant to the needs of those around us. We can be so comfortable in our own lives that we're unwilling to serve sacrificially. Let's confess to God together now:
Father forgive us for being so focussed on ourselves that we fail to see the needs of those around us. We confess that we are creatures of comfort, seeking our own pleasures above meeting the needs of others. Help us to love people as you have loved us, to serve people as Jesus has sacrificially served us and to live out the gospel both in our faith and in our works. Amen.
Song: Lead Us Back
PASSING OF THE PEACE
PREACHING OF THE WORD
John McPhilimey preached to us this week from James 5:1-12, looking at true faith and oppression. Click here to listen to that sermon.
COMMUNION
Every week we want to respond to what God has done for us in Jesus. One of the great ways he has provided for us to remember the truth of the gospel is giving us communion. As we take the bread and wine we remember what Jesus has done for us.
POST COMMUNION READING
Jesus’ death brings us life and this meal reminds us that we are fed by Jesus and forgiven because of Jesus.
We rejoice that You have died, rose again, and are now with the Father advocating for us. Amen.
With our money, time, and talent we give generously, knowing that through Your Son, Jesus, You have generously given to us.
We rejoice that You have given everything and we joyfully give everything back to Your care. Amen.
Song: Jesus Paid it All
Song: There is a Fountain
COMMITMENT READING
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
(Colossians 3:12-14)
Song: It Is Well
BENEDICTION
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
Peace be with you.
And also with you.
Amen.
