Songs:
“Go Tell it on the Mountain” words and music by John W. Work
Public Domain
Used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690
“Angels from the Realms of Glory” words and music by James Montgomery
Public Domain
Used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690
“In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti
Public Domain
Used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690
“Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery” by Matt Papa, Matt Boswell & Michael Bleeker
© 2012 Dayspring Music, Bleecker Publishing & Centricity Music Publishing
Used by Permission. CCLI License #2003690
“Doxology” by Thomas Ken, Louis Bourgeois
Public Domain CCLI# 2003690
Call To Worship: Advent Week One – Love
This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. This is love: not that we were good enough, even lovely enough, but that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten, that whoever believes would have life, everlasting life. This is love: God, being rich in mercy, even when we were dead in our sins, made us alive together with Christ—by grace we have been saved. And this is love: love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.
Classic Prayer: Kim Thomas
Our Father, yet another collection of dates and commitments have moved the calendar a year forward, and we find ourselves on the doorstep of advent, the season of anticipation – of looking back and looking forward – for the light of the world, the Savior promised, the child in Bethlehem, your Son given and coming.
It is the time we remember you, in fulfillment of the plan of redemption, sending your son into the world – a small expression of humanity in a manger, but who became the greatest expression of love.
In the light of this remembering, we are aware of how we have substituted love of self over love of Christ, making us outsiders when you have invited us in. We haven’t made calves of gold, but choosing self-rule, self-ways, self-priorities is still a form of idolatry and in all truth, the love of Christ has been exactly what we never knew we always wanted.
And You knew this loving Father, you’ve known all along. So you sent the love of Christ – the fulcrum of all history, the starting point of new beginnings for us. The God child in a manger, under a starlit sky, the embodiment of grace and mercy, the vehicle of delivery for the perfect gift of love. The one who would come to love and save us from our sins.
What wondrous love is this oh my soul – oh my soul! Father, that you would bestow such a great love on us, that we could be called the children of God? This is the love of Christ, this is the love we long for, this is the love we are loved with! Gloria in excelsis – DEO! Amen.