In between the season of Advent and our upcoming series in Exodus (starting Sunday, January 27), we’ll spend four weeks with the Lord’s Prayer in Teach Us to Pray. Here’s how you can prepare for our first week:
1. Read through our text, Matthew 6:9–13.
In Luke 11, the disciples ask Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” Jesus responds with the prayer we now know as “The Lord’s Prayer.” This week, we’ll survey the entirety of the prayer. Next week we’ll focus on “Our Father in Heaven,” followed by the three “Your” statements the next week and the three “Us” statements the final week.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: Psalm 145:8–13
Go Tell It On The Mountain (John W. Work, arr. David Crowder Band)
God With Us (Jason Ingram, Leslie Jordan)
CONFESSION OF SIN: From Every Season Prayers by Scotty Smith:
Great and gracious Father,
we declare that Your love for us is beyond measure
and Your goodness to us is beyond question.
Jesus’ empty tomb fuels our humility and intensifies our joy today.
We turn once again to You for the manna of grace,
the renewing of our hearts, and the regaining of perspective.
Forgive us for not loving You as you deserve to be loved;
for not trusting You as your faithfulness commends;
and for not obeying You as the Gospel commands.
Forgive us for living lives marked more by busyness than kindness.
Forgive us for fueling resentment rather than forgiving offenses.
Forgive us for pampering ourselves into mediocrity while ignoring the poor.
We offer our confession, trusting in Jesus’ finished work
and Your promise of grace. Amen.
Great Is Thy Faithfulness (Thomas Obediah Chisholm, William Marion Runyan)
Seas of Crimson (Johnson, Bashta, Taylor, Strand arr. Daniel Bashta)
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Psalm 103:8–13
GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer
Your Love Is Strong (Jon Foreman)
All Glory Be To Christ (Dustin Kensrue, arr. by Kings Kaleidoscope)
BENEDICTION
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This is week four of Advent, and Christmas is around the corner. In Advent (the four weeks leading up to Christmas) we celebrate the fulfilled promise of the first coming of Jesus and heighten our anticipation for the ultimate fulfillment of all Old Testament promises at His second coming, when the wolf will lie down with the lamb, death will be swallowed up, and every tear will be wiped away.
Read more about Advent here and visit The Christian Year for our creative accompaniment to the season! Here’s how you can prepare for this Sunday:
1. Read through our text, Matthew 1:18–25.
Jesus’ earthly parents are softly swept up into the God-narrative of so many generations. With a role to play that was by no means easy (yet marked with God’s direct communication), the two find themselves at the long-awaited dawn—the “sunrise from on high” (Luke 1:78). Jesus was here to save His people from their sins.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: From Psalm 130; The Apostles’ Creed
ADVENT CANDLE FOUR
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate;
was crucified, dead and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
I believe in the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
The forgiveness of sins;
The resurrection of the body;
And the life everlasting.
Amen.
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Robert J. Hughes, Charles Wesley, arr. Red Mountain Church)
Doxology (Amen) (Christmas) (Bourgeois, Ken, Owens, Wickham)
CONFESSION OF SIN: From The Worship Sourcebook
O God, in the beginning You spoke,
and creation was born, the object of Your loving care.
In the fullness of time You spoke,
and the Word became flesh, Jesus, gift of Your love.
We wonder at the miracle of creation;
we stand in awe before the mystery of the incarnation.
Forgive us earthbound creatures, feeble in faith,
empty of hope, lacking in love.
This year let the miracle and mystery of Christmas happen for us again.
We wait upon You with ready hearts, O God,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
God With Us (Jason Ingram, Leslie Jordan)
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: Matthew 1:20–21
Hallelujah, What A Savior (Advent) (Bliss, Carter, Ivey, Suh arr. Austin Stone)
GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer
Baby Son (John Mark McMillan)
Oh Holy Night (John Sullivan Dwight, Placide Cappeau)
BENEDICTION
Each year we have an Advent Hymn Sing at Park Church. Why do we do this? First, Advent is a time for both anticipating and adoring. We want to take time to recognize that we long for Jesus (usually because things are not the way they should be) and take time to adore Jesus (recognizing that He has come)! Second, hymns take truths we know about God and make them singable, shared expressions of worship, igniting thoughts and affections both individually and corporately.
So, while singing Christmas songs together is a common, lovely sentimentalism of the season, gathering to sing hymns about Christ’s incarnation and return is not just for nostalgia’s sake!
Pray and sing through the service:
Advent is for Anticipating
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (John Neale, Henry Coffin, arr. Chichi Agorom, The Christian Year)
Come Thou Long Expected Jesus (Robert J. Hughes, Charles Wesley, arr. Red Mountain Church)
Come Thou Fount (Advent) (Luke Brawner, Robert Robinson, John Wyeth)
Joy To The World (Isaac Watts)
Story for Kids
Advent is for Adoring
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing (Felix Mendelssohn, Charles Wesley, George Whitefield)
Hallelujah, What A Savior (Advent) (Bliss, Carter, Ivey, Suh arr. Austin Stone)
Oh Come All Ye Faithful (Robert Lau, John Francis Wade)
Oh Holy Night (John Sullivan Dwight, Placide Cappeau)
This week, we’ll wrap up our Fall study of Ephesians with Jesus’ letter to the church in Ephesus from Revelation 2. It’s also week three of Advent. Read more about Advent here and visit The Christian Year for our creative accompaniment to the season!
Here’s how you can prepare for this Sunday:
1. Read through our text, Revelation 2:1–7.
Something like 20 years after Paul writes his letter to the Ephesians, John is imprisoned on the island of Patmos when Jesus appears to him as a part of his Revelation. John is given seven letters by Jesus to be sent to seven different churches, one of which is the church in Ephesus. Although the Ephesian church is commended by Jesus for their “patient endurace” and lack of tolerance for evil, Jesus warns them that they have “abandoned the love [they] had at first.” This lovelesness warrants a stern warning from Jesus that He will remove them as a church unless they repent, remember where they came from, and return in heart.
2. Read, pray, and sing through the service:
CALL TO WORSHIP: From Psalm 130; The Apostles’ Creed
ADVENT CANDLE THREE
I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate;
was crucified, dead and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
I believe in the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
The forgiveness of sins;
The resurrection of the body;
And the life everlasting.
Amen.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel (John Neale, Henry Coffin, arr. Chichi Agorom, The Christian Year)
Come Thou Fount (Advent) (Luke Brawner, Robert Robinson, John Wyeth)
CONFESSION OF SIN: From The Worship Sourcebook
There are many times we think we love You well, O God.
But upon hearing Your call to love You with all our heart,
and all our mind, and all our strength,
we confess that our love for You is a diluted love,
made insipid and flat by lesser loyalties and a divided heart.
Our love seems pure only for brief moments;
soon our affections are drawn away.
How easily our devotion dies.
Forgive us;
in deep mercy spare us, despite our lost first love for You;
in grace rekindle our love for You
in seeing anew Jesus’ love for us. Amen.
Better (Pat Barrett, Ed Cash, Chris Tomlin)
Fall Afresh (Jeremy Riddle)
ASSURANCE OF PARDON: 1 John 4:10–17
GREETING, SERMON, & COMMUNION
RESPONSE: Song & Prayer
O Lord, You’re Beautiful (Keith Green)/I Love You Lord (Laurie Klien)
Joy To The World (Isaac Watts)
BENEDICTION