Welcome to Sojourn’s weekly worship music set list review & service recap. You’ll not only read a list of the songs we led, but also the readings and prayers from our liturgy. You can also watch the video stream of the whole service from our Facebook page here (you can also see a video of our sermon alone, below).
Our liturgy is directed by Worship Director Justin Shaffer, in collaboration with our Creative Staff at Sojourn Church New Albany, and our Liturgy writing team (Rebekah Carroll, Ryan Marsh, and Lindsey Blair).
This Sunday Pastor Jonah Sage preached from Acts 2:42 in our series entitled Our Sojourn.
January 23, 2022 – Jonah Sage – Who We Are Becoming from Sojourn Church New Albany on Vimeo.
—Prelude: “Psalm 34 (Taste and See)” Key, Leader
CALL TO WORSHIP: Liturgist
Themes: Sunday belongs to the Lord, Adoption
Attributes: Aseity (Because the point of this is fellowship; God doesn’t need us), Immanence, Omnipresence, Oneness
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand—
when I awake, I am still with you.
-Psalm 139:13-18 NIV
—Song 2: “All Creatures of Our God and King” Key, Leader
LAMENT: Justin
(Tweak this… Fearfully and wonderfully made?? Song??) Today churches throughout our nation are praying together on sanctity of life Sunday… We affirm that all children are precious image bearers of the living God, beautiful and valuable, worthy of protection, love, and compassion. Church, we cannot stand idly by and remain silent when the law of our land does not inherently protect the unborn – and this absolutely contradicts God’s very purpose in creating us. Let us pray for our society, that its terrible defiance of God’s will may come to an end. Let’s pray together:
Heavenly Father, may the Church defend unborn life and proclaim the Gospel’s teaching with clarity and strength to a dangerously confused world. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
May the plight of the unborn move our civil leaders to risk unpopularity and support these precious children’s inalienable right to life. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
May women considering abortion heed the call of the Holy Spirit to share life. We pray for them, in their fear and confusion. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for the conversion of doctors, nurses, and others who provide abortion services. That their eyes will be opened to the effect of their actions. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray that the gospel will permeate our culture. That we may help women in frightening pregnancies in light of Gospel truth. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
We pray for the healing of women who have had an abortion: through the ministry of the Church may they find hope and reconciliation with their God and with themselves. In your mercy, hear our prayer.
Risen Lord of Life, defend the work of your hands against untimely and undeserved death. Save the unborn who bear your image, and cleanse our society of the scourge of abortion, and breath in us all the breath of new life. We ask this through Christ our Lord, who defeated death, Amen.
—Song 3: “You Hem Me In ” Key, Leader
ASSURANCE: Liturgist
Hear the word of the Lord: (Reading over vibey, moody jams)
Each of us is now a part of his resurrection body, refreshed and sustained at one fountain—his Spirit—where we all come to drink. The old labels we once used to identify ourselves—labels like Jew or Greek, slave or free—are no longer useful. We need something larger, more comprehensive.
14-18 I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less. A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, transparent and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell? As it is, we see that God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.
19-24 But I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self-importance. For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, “Get lost; I don’t need you”? Or, Head telling Foot, “You’re fired; your job has been phased out”? As a matter of fact, in practice it works the other way—the “lower” the part, the more basic, and therefore necessary. You can live without an eye, for instance, but not without a stomach. When it’s a part of your own body you are concerned with, it makes no difference whether the part is visible or clothed, higher or lower. You give it dignity and honor just as it is, without comparisons. If anything, you have more concern for the lower parts than the higher. If you had to choose, wouldn’t you prefer good digestion to full-bodied hair?
25-26 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance.
27-31 You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this.
-1 Corinthians 12:13-31 The Message
—Song 4: “Doxology” Key, Leader
PEACE: Band Member
Let the body of Christ greet one another in God’s grace and peace 🙂 Try to find someone you don’t know and introduce yourself
—————————————— [SERMON & COMMUNION] —————————————-
—Song 5: “Come to the Feast” Key, Leader
ANNOUNCEMENTS: Reader
—Song 6: “Yes and Amen” Key, Leader
BENEDICTION: Liturgist
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you.
14 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. [Peace be with you!] -2 Corinthians 13:11, 14 NIV