Preparing To Rejoice In Him // September 24, 2017

PREPARE YOUR HEART FOR WORSHIP ON SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

“Nothing makes God more supreme and central in worship than when a people are utterly persuaded that nothing- not money or prestige or leisure or family or job or health or sports or toys or friends – nothing is going to bring satisfaction to their sinful, guilty, aching hearts besides God.” – John Piper, God’s Passion for His Glory
(Corporate Worship: The Heart Hunger That Honors God)

I would love to tell you that nothing brings satisfaction to my sinful, guilty, aching heart besides God. Sadly, more times than not, I resonate much more with John Calvin when he said, “Man’s nature, so to speak, is a perpetual factory of idols.” I am very prone to chase after things I view as safe and worthy because that is where I think I will find my pleasure and security. As we prepare to hear from God’s word this coming Sunday, I pray God would give me/us a fresh sense of wonder, awe, peace, rest, and delight as we hear how Scripture defines worship.

Below are some of the elements that will be a part of the worship service this coming Lord’s Day. I encourage you to use them to begin preparing your heart and mind to hear from God. I hope they help you find delight in Him because of what He has done through Christ on our behalf.

WORSHIP IN SONG

All Creatures Of Our God And King | All Creatures Of Our God And King – lyrics

I have always loved this hymn. It calls, not only us as humans, but all of creation to worship the Creator. God is sovereign over all and good to all.

Beautiful Jesus | Beautiful Jesus – lyrics

I sometimes have a tendency to view God as “far off” and distant and rarely consider Him as beauty. But this song is a great reminder that nothing is so lovely as Jesus and His work on the cross on our behalf. He is the essence and source of true beauty.

GOD’S CALL TO COME WORSHIP AND DELIGHT IN HIM :: PSALM 8

[1] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. [2] Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. [3] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, [4] what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. [6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, [7] all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, [8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. [9] O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

CONFESSING OUR FAITH TOGETHER :: WESTMINSTER CONFESSION OF FAITH, Chapter 21

GOD’S WORD PREACHED :: PSALM 95

1] Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! [2] Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! [3] For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods. [4] In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. [5] The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land. [6] Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker! [7] For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you hear his voice, [8] do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, [9] when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. [10] For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways.” [11] Therefore I swore in my wrath, “They shall not enter my rest.”