Every now and again I like to share one of our worship services from Grace Fellowship Church. I do this to provide just one example of how a church applies the principles of Scripture to its public worship. If there is something you see here that would bless your church, you have permission to pilfer freely!

This service’s cast of characters included Patrick as our service leader, Dwight as the elder who prayed the pastoral prayer and read the Scripture, Allie as the lead worshipper, and Paul as the preacher. Our band consisted of piano and violin with two female vocalists. The various elements of the service are in bold with the name of the person who led the element in parentheses. Items in quotes represent roughly what the person said to the congregation. Items not in quotes are explanatory. The entire service took approximately 90 minutes.
Pre-Service Singing
In order to integrate a little more music into our time together, we often sing an extra song five minutes before our 10:00 AM start time. This year we are singing the same song for four weeks in a row in attempt to grow more familiar with it and to learn to sing it in parts. This week and month we sang “I Surrender All.”
Call to Worship (Patrick)
Patrick began the service with a call to worship. “‘Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other. By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: “To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”’ This call to turn to God comes from Isaiah 45. The right day to turn to God is today. The best time to get right with God is now. Every single person will stand before God and explain their life. There are no exceptions. None whatsoever. So turn to Him now. And praise His holy Name.”
Singing (Allie)

“Come Ye Sinners”
“Grace Greater Than Our Sin”

Corporate Praise (Patrick)
“We have sung of our intention to come to Jesus and our confidence in His abounding grace. What else is true about God that should encourage anyone to approach Him today. He is gracious … what else? What makes us sure that any person can approach Him? What do we know is true about Him from the Bible that should encourage all of us to turn to Him? Just shout those out.”
For a few minutes the congregation shouted out their answers.
“The only thing that holds us back from God is our sin. Let’s use the words of that great Psalm of confession, Psalm 51, to sing our plea for forgiveness and our confidence that He will grant it.”
Singing (Allie)

Psalm 51 (set to Crimond)

Pastoral Prayer (Dwight)
Dwight led the pastoral prayer. Each week we pray for some items that are urgent but also some that are “scheduled.” This week those scheduled items included one like-minded congregation in our city, the war in Ukraine, and one of our church members who was preaching at a nearby church.
Scripture Reading (Dwight)
“Please take your Bible and turn to Judges 2. We will be reading from Judges 2:6 to Judges 3:6. You will find that on page 188 if you are using one of our church Bibles. This is what Holy Scripture says…”
Dwight read the text, then closed with, “This is the word of the Lord,” to which the congregation responded, “Thanks be to God.”
Singing (Allie)

“There is a Foe, Whose Hidden Power”

Sermon (Paul)
Paul preached the opening sermon for a new expositional series on the book of Judges. This sermon was, in my opinion, a master class in how to introduce a book. It was titled “We Need a Savior.”
Singing (Allie)

“There Is A Fountain” (acapella)

Commission (Patrick)
Patrick tied the message of the sermon into a “commission” that challenged the church to live out its truths throughout the week. This commission replaces (and carries some of the content of) what would usually be labelled “announcements” or “notices.” It forces us to tie information we want the church to know into a call to action based on the truths of the Word.
Benediction
The benediction was 2 Corinthians 13:14: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.”

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.

Today’s Kindle deals include a couple of good books for teens as well as a couple of commentaries and some other solid picks.

Westminster Books has all of their ESV Bibles marked down at least 50%. A few are discounted as deeply as 70%.

(Yesterday on the blog: Modesty Requires Looking Away)

You would not be wrong if you surmised that much of what John Piper believes about gender pronouns is revealed by the title of this edition of Ask Pastor John which speaks of “so-called ‘gender pronoun hospitality.’”

Brandon is missing his Izzy—his young daughter who went to be with the Lord a couple of years ago. He writes a moving post in which he wonders what Izzy is doing right now.

Though this article from D.A. Carson and John Woodbridge is addressed primarily to pastors, there’s wisdom there for all of us.

This is a precious meditation on the joy of our adoption. “At our finalization ceremony, our attorney asked us, ‘Do you understand that if the court grants your petition [to adopt the child], you’ll be responsible for all of his needs as if he had been born to you?’ We answered in the affirmative and marveled at how that one question could carry so much weight.”

You’ve heard it said, I’m sure, that Christmas is a pagan tradition. Kevin DeYoung goes digging to address the claim.

Bethel McGrew has a long and interesting article on Jordan Peterson. “That was what separated Peterson from other articulate public intellectuals of his generation—people who were successful, but on nothing like this scale. More than merely articulate, more than merely passionate, he was compassionate. He didn’t simply talk to people. He actively loved them, so intensely that it seemed he was at all times attempting to take the burdens of all humanity on his own shoulders. Yes, he was also a polemicist, a political lightning-rod, a man with a knack for making all the most annoying people furious with him all at once. But we had many great polemicists. We had many great gadflies. What we didn’t have was a great humanist.”

“I will pray for you right now but then I expect you to go to your local church and ask them to pray for you.”

Christ will hold us fast. But we need gospel friends to hold us close.
—Albert Mohler

The Lord be with you and bless you today.

Yesterday’s link to Samuel James’ review of When Narcissism Comes to Church was broken. I apologize for that! You can find it here.
The Silent Sin That Kills Christian Love
Here’s Trevin Wax on a too-common sin. “Perhaps the test of faithfulness in a day of moral degradation will be our love for people across chasms of difference. Faithfulness isn’t in showy displays that we hate all the right people. Faithfulness isn’t in adopting a contemptuous posture toward the current president or the former one. The way of the cross rejects the path of sneers and jeers, whether in the form of elite condescension or populist passion.”
A Call For Trailblazers
This missionary has “a call for trailblazers. A few are called to this hard and wonderful work. A great many will be called to the crucial work of sending and supporting them. May God show us which one he is calling each one of us to.”
How Can We Trust the Bible When It Contains Inconsistencies?
One thing I appreciate about Christians and “inconsistencies” in the Bible is that we don’t run from them, but rather seek to understand them. “I am finding inconsistencies in the Gospels that really bother me. But if it contains contradictory accounts, how can we trust what the Bible says?”
Shades of Grace
“Roman Catholic, Cheap Grace, and Reformed Christian sit in a small country pub, discussing justification. To the surprise of each, ‘It is of grace’ they assert, one by one.” This article does a good job of showing the distinctions between three different understandings of God’s saving grace.
May the Lord Make Me Truly Thankful
Darryl Dash: “One of my goals as I get older is to become more thankful, more aware of God’s grace in all that he’s given me to enjoy. As far as I can see, the only alternative is to become more entitled, and that’s not an option I want to explore.”
Who Says Who We Are—Man or Maker?
“There are a lot of questions we humans have about ourselves. How are we made to function? How should we build relationships like friendships and marriages? Should there be any boundaries for sexual activity? What’s the best way to resolve conflict? There’s an endless—and important—list of questions.”
Flashback: Susie
This telling of Susie’s life is long overdue. It is well-researched, well-written, and well worth the read. It has deservedly become the definitive account of an important life.

…humility is not the antonym of strength. On the contrary, those who tremble at God’s word are those most likely to stand against human opposition. —Gavin Ortlund