Prepare:

• Set aside an hour in advance for walking through the liturgy.

• Discuss expectations with your children before starting [e.g. in regards to staying in the room, playing with the dog, etc].

• This is time to worship our God together. Leave additional tech devices out of the room.

• Grab your Bibles and coloring sheets for your kids.

• Print the liturgy out here.

Guide for Worship

(in lieu of gathering with Trinity Church on March 22, 2020)

“What Jesus did was not a mere example of something else, not a mere manifestation of some larger truth; it was itself the climactic event and fact of cosmic history. From then on everything is different…the End came forward into the present in Jesus the Messiah” - N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus

Call to Worship (Leader reads aloud, taken from Isaiah 55:1-3)

“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;
and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.”

Come Thou Fount (sing along with the recording above)

Come thou fount of ev'ry blessing,
Tune my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy, never-ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount
I'm fixed upon it
Mount of thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by thy help I've come
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home

Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He to rescue me from danger
Interposed his precious blood

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to thee

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above
Here's my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for thy courts above

Confession of Sin (Invite everyone present to kneel and read this passage of Scripture together, taken from Psalm 51)
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight. so that you may be justified in your words, and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God you will not despise.” d

Assurance of Pardon (Leader will read this over everyone present upon rising)

"God makes wonderful promises to those who confess their sins and ask Him for mercy. In 1 John 1:5-10: This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. All Together: Thanks be to God

Great Is Thy Faithfulness (sing along with the recording above)

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father
There is no shadow of turning with Thee
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be

Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided
Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Sun, moon and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside

Old Testament Reading (to be read aloud): Isaiah 6:1-13

New Testament Reading (to be read aloud): Mark 4:1-20

A Benediction (Leader reads aloud, taken from Isaiah 55:10-13):

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
“For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”

Leader: May the peace of God be with you,

Together: And also with you!